Electro-optic solid state beam deflection: resolution considerations and 2-D implementation

Abstract

A simpler, alternative to 'prism type' electro-optic (EO) solid state deflectors has been recently demonstrated. This device is essentially a single interface version of a conventional deflector, but significant deflection is achieved by setting the input beam at grazing incidence to the interface (where, additionally, it can act as an EO switch). The increased deflection seen near TIR is, however, made at the expense of increased divergence of the output beam. Overall deflection can be a misleading quantity to determine the performance of a deflector as this could always be increased with suitable lenses. A more reliable figure of merit is the number of separate resolvable spots that can be imaged from the deflector output. Here we analyze the achievable resolution for a single interface deflector. It can be seen that with a suitably sized device, significant resolution can be attained from a single interface deflector as shown in Fig.1. The resolution is shown here as a function of temperature since if the deflector were to be working at visible wavelengths if would necessarily be heated to avoid photo-refractive effects. Additionally heating has a secondary role in increasing resolution due to the intrinsic n term in the EO equation. Although there are still issues to overcome in terms of the output beam quality of a single interface deflector, it does possess one major advantage over the previous, multiple interface deflectors. Due to its simplicity it can be fashioned to function in 2 dimensions (Fig.2). This would be the first ever report to our knowledge of a 2D EO solid state beam deflector.

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ORCID for R.W. Eason: orcid.org/0000-0001-9704-2204

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