3rd November 2016

1,000-fold increase in 3-D scanning speed

Researchers at Penn State University report a 1,000-fold increase in the scanning speed for 3-D printing, using a space-charge-controlled KTN beam deflector with a large electro-optic effect.

A major technological advance in the field of high-speed beam-scanning devices has resulted in a speed boost of up to 1000 times, according to researchers in Penn State's College of Engineering. Using a space-charge-controlled KTN beam deflector – a kind of crystal made of potassium tantalate and potassium niobate – with a large electro-optic effect, researchers have found that scanning at a much higher speed is possible.

"When the crystal materials are applied to an electric field, they generate uniform reflecting distributions, that can deflect an incoming light beam," said Professor Shizhuo Yin, from the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science. "We conducted a systematic study on indications of speed and found out the phase transition of the electric field is one of the limiting factors."

To overcome this issue, Yin and his team of researchers eliminated the electric field-induced phase transition in a nanodisordered KTN crystal by making it work at a higher temperature. They not only went beyond the Curie temperature (at which certain materials lose their magnetic properties, replaced by induced magnetism), they went beyond the critical end point (in which a liquid and its vapour can co-exist).

Credit: Penn State

This increased the scanning speed from the microsecond range to the nanosecond range, and led to improved high-speed imaging, broadband optical communications and ultrafast laser display and printing. The researchers believe this could lead to a new generation of 3-D printers, with objects that once took an hour to print now taking a matter of seconds.

Yin said technology like this would be especially useful in the medical industry – high-speed imaging will now be possible in real-time. For example, optometrists who use a non-invasive test that uses light waves to take cross-section pictures of a person's retina, would be able to have a 3-D image of their patients' retinas as they are performing the surgery, so they can see what needs to be corrected during the procedure.

The group's findings are published in the journal Nature Scientific Reports.

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