Two single-axis scanners make a virtual gimbaled scanner

A 2D scan generated from two single-axis scanning mir-rors often has the beam steered about two distant axes that lead to scan artifacts, such as displacement jitters, telecen-tric errors, and spot variations. Previously, this problem has been addressed with complicated optical and mechanical designs, such as 4f relays and gimbaled mechanics, which ultimately limit the performance of the system. Here, we show that two single-axis scanners alone can produce a 2D scanning pattern nearly identical to a single-pivot gimbaled scanner through an apparently previously undiscovered sim-ple geometry. This finding broadens the design parameter space of beam steering applications.(c) 2022 Optica Publishing Group under the terms of the Optica Open Access Publishing Agreement