Patent attributes
The light beam scanning method and apparatus perform light beam scanning of a cylindrical internal surface scanning type, a cylindrical external surface scanning type, and a plane scanning type, where when a sheet-like object to be scanned is scanned by a light beam emitted from a light source, at least one of lateral displacement and longitudinal displacement of a light beam and aberration in an optical system is compensated by controlling a wave front of the light beam with a wavefront control device. Also, when the lateral displacement, longitudinal displacement, and the aberration are caused by change of an environmental temperature, it is possible to measure the environmental temperature and to perform compensation through the control of the wave front by the wavefront control device based on the measured environmental temperature. Also, when scanning is performed using a plurality of light beams, it is possible to align scanning positions of the plurality of light beams in an auxiliary scanning direction in a parallel manner by displacing the scanning positions through the control of the wave front of at least one light beam using the wavefront control device.
