A nonmechanical laser scanner by electron beam pumping of AlGaInP-GaInP semiconductor structures

Abstract

An unconventional way of generating laser light with semiconductor structures is to irradiate them with a high energy electron beam of sufficiently high current density. Electron beam pumping thus offers the possibility to scan the exciting electron beam along a bar of semiconductor laser material, moving the lasing spot with the swiftness of the electron beam. This paper describes such a laser scanner. Laser scanners find wide application in laser printers, bar code readers etc. Most of these scanners are limited in their scan rate as they are based on mechanically driven rotating polygons or galvo mirrors. A nonmechanical scanner with increased scan rate will open up new application areas.