Laser beam scanning by rotary mirrors II Conic-section scan patterns

Abstract

Part II of this study is an application of the general theory of Part I to the following scanners: the galvanometer-based scanner, the paddle scanner, and the regular polygon. The scan field produced by these scanners is (or approximates) a circular cone. Therefore the scan pattern on the plane of observation can be one of the following curves, circle, ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola, depending on the position and orientation of the plane. Special topics to be addressed are (1) the effect of input offset, (2) the locus of the instantaneous scan center and the waist of the scan field, (3) the scanning on curved surfaces, and (4) the generalization of the scan-field expression. In Part III, X-Y scanning will be studied.