Process and apparatus for high resolution non-mechanical deflection of

Abstract

A process and apparatus for non-mechanically deflecting of a light beam with high resolution characterized by passing a linearly polarized beam through at least one electro-optical deflector and preferably two to obtain four possible beam directions, passing the four beam directions through a multicomponent deflector of prisms which direct each of the four beam directions to a given point on an acousto-optical light deflector which is a two-dimensional acousto-optical light deflector that deflects the beam into two-dimensional arrays on a screen or storage medium, with each one of the four beam directions causing the two-dimensional arrays to be disposed in a different quadrant of the screen or medium. Preferably, the beams leaving the acousto-optic deflector are passed through a four component polarizing filter which prevents undesired overlap between the zero order undeflected portion of the beam and the first orders. In one embodiment, at least one of the electro-optical deflectors which comprises a polarization switch or rotator and a polarization dividing filter which is a birefringement discriminator, such as a Wollaston prism or a Nicols prism is separated with the polarization switch disposed ahead of the acousto-optical deflector and the polarization dividing filter receiving the deflected beams from the acousto-optical device.