What are the ways to change the direction of the laser beam, other than rotating the pointer itself and without using a system of mirrors?

Question

lasers

What are the ways to change the direction of the laser beam, other than rotating the pointer itself and without using a system of mirrors?
Are there crystals that can change the angle of the light beam on demand (applying a voltage to them or creating an electromagnetic field)?

Answer 1

Yes, there are.
Actually, the task is to change the refractive index of a substance under the influence of some external factors. The easiest way to implement this, in fact, is with a liquid. Solutions of many substances (yes even sugar) show a relationship between concentration and refractive index. Accordingly, slightly dilute the solution in the flask - and the light beam will already deviate from its previous direction. But this is so, at the level of the school laboratory.
If you think about more technological solutions, then you can start reading everything on the topic of magneto-optics almost completely: there is a whole set of electro-optical effects. In the simplest case, everything is tied to the fact that in a crystal the molecules are oriented along a certain direction, which changes if an external e/m field is turned on. The orientation of the molecules changes => the polarization of the substance changes => a certain number of effects occur, first of all - birefringence and a change in the refractive index.