Wide-range high-resolution optical scanner for optical wireless communication and laser radar: Laboratory experiment

High resolution, wide range optical beam scanning methods are sought to meet the ever-increasing demands of optical wireless communication, printers, scanners and laser radar. In this paper we present a precise steering method with high angular resolution and a wide scanning range. The proposed beam-steering device is also, lightweight and compact, which are significant advantages in many applications. The scanning is implemented by means of a pair of diffraction gratings, which can be translated relative to one another, and a tunable-wavelength laser. Thus the beam is steered by the combined effect of two independent mechanisms. The agility of wavelength tuning enhances the performance of a grating-based device, while the sensitivity to chromatic aberrations is minimized by performing the coarse steering with the diffraction grating. The system performance is demonstrated experimentally and the results are reported.