CROSS-REFERENCE TO PRIOR APPLICATIONS

This application is a U.S. National Stage Application under 35 U.S.C. § 371 of International Application No. PCT/EP2017/084303 filed on Dec. 22, 2017, and claims benefit to German Patent Application No. DE 10 2016 125 630.7 filed on Dec. 23, 2016. The International Application was published in German on Jun. 28, 2018, as WO 2018/115397 A1 under PCT Article 21(2).

FIELD

The invention relates to an optical assembly with a volume grating for influencing the beam direction and/or beam position of at least one light beam.

The invention also relates to a method for influencing the beam direction and/or beam position of at least one light beam.

BACKGROUND

Optical assemblies and methods for influencing the beam direction of at least one light beam, in which a volume grating, for example an acousto-optical deflector (AOD) is used for influencing the beam direction of at least one light beam by diffraction, are known from practice. For example, light beams from lasers can be fed into such an AOD in such a way that the AOD diffracts optimally. Light beams of different lasers are frequently influenced in this process. Problems may arise in such a scenario if several lasers are active simultaneously. Frequencies applied to the AOD act in different ways on the individual light beams with possibly different wavelengths. In this case, usually only the diffracted light can be used, a limited diffraction efficiency being very disadvantageous for some applications. In many applications, it is furthermore desirable to generate different diffraction orders of light beams and to be able to choose between these different diffraction orders, or between the zeroth and the first diffraction order, for a particular application.

SUMMARY

In an embodiment, the present invention provides an optical assembly which includes a volume grating configured to influence a beam direction of at least one light beam, and a switching device arranged in a beam path upstream of the volume gratin. The switching device is configured to switch the beam direction and/or beam position of the at least one light beam from a first beam direction and/or beam position, in which the at least one light beam does not impinge on the volume grating at an acceptance angle of the volume grating, to a second beam direction and/or beam position, in which the at least one light beam impinges on the volume grating at the acceptance angle, and/or vice versa.

