Synthesis for an electrooptic light scanner with an arbitrary beam shape.

Two methods are described for synthesizing the electrooptic light scanner with an arbitrarily prescribed one-dimensional spatial distribution of the light beam. The electrooptic light scanner is constructed by a series of cascaded stages, each stage containing a natural-birefringent electrooptic crystal with an inclination angle between opposite faces. One method is realized by a set of cascaded stages, each of which contains a polarizer, electrooptic crystal, optical compensator, and analyzer; and the other method by a multistage construction that is inserted between the input and output polarizers, each stage being composed of only an electrooptic crystal and optical compensator. Two examples for each method are given to illustrate the synthesis procedures.