OPTICAL MULTI-BEAM SCANNING DEVICE AND IMAGE FORMING APPARATUS

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To enhance optical efficiency even when a light source is arranged without imposing any limit in a polarization direction or the direction orthogonal thereto with respect to an optical axis of a light beam from the light source. SOLUTION: The optical multi-beam scanning device of the present invention has: a single optical deflector; a pre-deflection optical system that allows the light beams from a plurality of light sources incident to the optical deflector; and a post-deflection optical system that focuses the respective reflected light beams from the optical deflector to respective faces to be scanned for respective light beams. The pre-deflection optical system has a polarization beam splitter that synthesizes the optical paths of the two light beams and a first and a second 1/2 wavelength plates which vary the polarization direction of the respective light beams incident to the two incident faces of the polarization beam splitter. In this case, it is preferable that a 1/2 wavelength plate or a 1/4 wavelength palate is provided for changing the polarization direction of the respective element light beams in the synthesized light beam from the emitting face of the polarization beam splitter. COPYRIGHT: (C)2006,JPO&NCIPI