Patent attributes
A scanning apparatus comprises two rotatable bodies (1,10 or 40) arranged to rotate in opposite directions. The first body being a polarizer (10) and the second being a mirror (1) or a second polarizer (40). The apparatus is arranged to define an optical path for a polarized beam, wherein the optical path passes through the first body (10), is reflected at the second body (1 or 40), and is reflected by the first body (10) back to the second body (1 or 40) from where it is transmitted or reflected to produce a linear scan. There is also disclosed a scanning system comprising a reflector (1) and an optical wedge (42) containing refractive materials, arranged to counter rotate and arranged so that a beam passing through the optical wedge (42), is reflected by the reflector (1) and passes back through the optical wedge (42) to produce a linear scan.
