wide-field beam expander?

Dear Sci.Optics,

I am trying to design a laser scanning system for microscopy.

I have a narrow (~1 mm) collimated laser beam, that is scanning over
about +/- 1-3 degrees from a stationary pivot in a pupil plane (the
surface of the scan mirror(s)). I need to expand the scannnig beam to
~10 mm (10x expansion) and re-image the stationary pivot at the
back-aperture of a microscope objective lens (~10 mm).

Can you advise me on how to achieve this? I do not think a conventional
beam expander will provide good enough off-axis performance.

Is it possible to design a 10x beam expander that has low aberration
over a field of +/- 1-3 degrees? (Ideally diffraction-limited!)

I've thought about using a modified off-axis reflecting telescope, like
a Stevick-Paul system, but with collimated output. But I haven't been
able to obtain a big enough corrected field.

Any ideas and comments received with thanks!

Regards,
Brett Patterson

Dr B. A. Patterson
Associate Team Leader (Applications)
Institute of Photonics, University of Strathclyde
Wolfson Centre, 106 Rottenrow, Glasgow G4 0NW, Scotland UK.
Tel: +44 141 548 5735 Web: www.photonics.ac.uk

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