In this paper, we report the modeling, fabrication and characterization of a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS)-based sub-wavelength diffraction grating under in-plane motion for high-optical-efficiency high-speed laser-scanning applications. The scanner utilizes in-plane rotational vibration of a planar microstructure to change the orientation of the diffraction grating, hence causing a diffracted laser beam to scan with less dynamic wavefront deformation as compared with conventional scanning micromirrors. An optical efficiency of more than 75% is experimentally achieved with a simple gold-coated binary sub-wavelength grating. When operated in air and electrostatically driven by 45 V dc bias and 84 V peak-to-peak ac voltages, the 1 mm diameter grating is capable of scanning an optical scan angle of 13.7° with a 632.8 nm wavelength incident laser beam at a resonant frequency of 20.35 kHz. The measured optical resolution is around 310 pixels per unidirectional scan.
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