OPTICAL BEAM SCANNING BY PHASE DELAYS

摘要

A light beam scanner of the moving interference fringe pattern type which includes a body of semiconductor material having a source of coherentradiation and wave guides for guiding the coherent radiation along a plurality of spatially displaced paths which are optically uncoupled, and a device associated with the spatially displaced paths for producing relative phase changes between radiation in the different paths whereby interference fringes in the far field are spatially scanned. In addition, wavelength modulation of the laser over a range of about 80.ANG. can be achieved. The source of the coherent radiation can be a single laser or a plurality of optically coupled lasers, and the optical uncoupling can be achieved by spatial displacement of the paths or by insertion of a high loss medium between the paths