Performance characterization of scanning beam steered by tilting double prisms

A pair of orthogonal tilting double prisms with a tracking precision better than submicroradian order exhibits a good application potential in laser tracking fields. In the paper, the beam scanning performance determined by both the structure parameters and the tilting motions of two prisms is overall investigated. The functional relation between the structure parameters and the exact beam scanning range is established, the capability of high-accuracy beam steering is validated together with the investigation of the scanning error sources and the nonlinear control laws, and the beam shape distortion degree under multi-parameter combinations is demonstrated. These studies can provide important references for the development of tilting double prisms.