High performance laser shutter using a hard disk drive voice-coil actuator

Voice-coil motors in computer hard disk drives are shown to make excellent mechanical shutters for light beams. Shutter speeds in excess of 10 mm / ms are attained, allowing switching of a focused beam in under 10 μ s . Aperture size can be up to 32 mm . As little as 1 mW of power is required for shutter operation. The shutter can be driven with a sinusoidal signal to switch at up to 100 Hz . The shutter is also suitable for x-ray applications. Essentially no modification of the drive or actuator is required for most types of operation.