| 摘要 |
<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To solve a problem that, while a prior art KTN-free polarizing light source can produce a beam with a sufficiently large diameter, a light beam scanner using the KTN or the like needs a beam to be narrowed to a small diameter due to restrictions on a practical control voltage, so that the light beam propagating with the small beam diameter is subject to beam spreading as it propagates after exiting an electrooptic polarizer due to diffraction, which prevents the polarizing light source from securing a sufficient number of resolvable points in a polarizing range. <P>SOLUTION: A polarizing light source of the present invention is generally composed of a laser oscillator section and an angular dispersion section. The laser oscillator section comprises a wavelength variable light source including a first diffraction grating. The laser oscillator section has a very large number of resolvable points on a wavelength axis. An output light beam of the laser oscillator section exits from an output coupling mirror. The output beam is converted into a larger beam diameter at the angular dispersion section and then enters a second diffraction grating. Change in wavelength of the laser oscillator is converted into spatial polarization while the very large number of resolvable points is maintained on the wavelength axis. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2012,JPO&INPIT |
