On Tue, 19 Jul 2016, Mouse wrote: > You'd probably know, then - what's the fastest way to deflect a laser > beam?
Whoa. Interesting problem since a photon carries no charge and thus you can't horizontally or vertically deflect it with a magnetic field. I guess that's why folks make things like these: http://www.newson.be/rhothor.htm > In particular, I'm wondering how practical it might be to take a laser > and turn it into a vector display on a handy blank wall - but that > requires some very fast acceleration of the spot, probably faster than > mechanical deflection can support (though if I'm wrong I'd love to know > it). I wonder how laser projectors work. The must use some kind of internal screen like the ones that use "lamps". I'm guessing they just use lasers instead of lamps to get a brightness and longevity boost. > For example, does piezoelectricity make a crystal distort enough to use > it as an optical deflection element in such a scheme? (My guess is no, > but I don't actually know.) I found mention of something like that in this paper: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1875389214002351 It's in the references: F. Filhol, E. Defay, C. Divoux, C. Zinck, M.-T. Delaye Resonant micro-mirror excited by a thin-film piezoelectric actuator for fast optical beam scanning That sounds wicked-cool, by the way. If you ever do build something like that, please share some video! -Swift
