San Jose, CA--At CLEO 2010, Laser Focus World had the opportunity to interview NTT Advanced Technology Corporation (Tokyo, Japan), winners of the 2010 CLEO/Laser Focus World Innovation Award, about their "KTN Voltage-Controlled Laser Beam Scanner using KTN Crystals." The KTN scanner is a very broad wavelength-range (532-4000 nm), voltage-controlled laser beam scanner that is 100X faster and 100X smaller than conventional scanners. Unlike mirror- or microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based scanners, there are no moving parts inside the all-solid-state KTN device.
The KTN scanner's operation is based on the "space-charge-controlled electro-optic effect" within a potassium, tantalum, niobium, and oxygen (KTN) crystal, in which an optical beam input to the device can be deflected ten degrees using both continuous and step-scanning modes, with scanning speeds up to 10 kHz. The crystal--only a few millimeters in size--is built into a miniature (2 x 3 x 6 cubic centimeters) voltage-controlled, turnkey module with integral thermoelectric cooler for applications in general R&D, communications, imaging, sensing, and printing. And because the scanner's damage threshold is higher than 500 MW/cm2 at 1064 nm, it is also suitable for laser machining and materials-processing applications.
--Posted by Gail Overton; [email protected]; www.laserfocusworld.com