Two-dimensional dynamic scanning utilizing electrowetting tunable prisms

We present a numerical and experimental investigation into the dynamics of two-dimensional electrowetting prism scanners. These scanners are an attractive option as they are transmissive, miniaturizable, nonmechanical and consume little power. We characterize the resonant frequencies of an electrowetting tunable prism for one-dimensional beam steering and find close agreement between simulation and experiment. The resonance frequencies are shown to produce an inherent standing wave resonance mode on the liquid-liquid interface that proves beneficial for linear performance. We extend our results to analyze two-dimensional raster scanning performance by driving the device on- and off-resonance modes. To validate the improvement in performance, we integrate the electrowetting prism into a two-photon laser scanning microscope as an optical scanner for fluorescence imaging.