Abstract

A polarization-independent nonmechanical laser beam steering scheme is proposed to realize continuous two-dimensional (2D) scanning with high efficiency, where the core components are two polarization-dependent devices, which are called liquid crystal optical phased arrays (LC-OPAs). These two one-dimensional (1D) devices are orthogonally cascaded to work on the state of azimuthal and elevation steering, respectively. Properties of polarization independence as well as 2D beam steering are mathematically and experimentally verified with a good agreement. Based on the experimental setup, linearly polarized beams with different polarization angles are steered with high accuracy. The measured angular deviations are less than 5 μrad, which is on the same order of the accuracy of the measurement system. This polarization-independent 2D laser beam steering scheme has potential application for nonmechanical laser communication, lidar, and other LC-based systems.

© 2017 Chinese Laser Press

Arbitrary multiple beam forming by two cascaded liquid crystal optical phased arrays

Liang Wu, Xiangru Wang, Xiaoxian He, Ziqiang Huang, XinNing Huang, and Caidong Xiong
Opt. Express 26(13) 17066-17077 (2018)

Liquid crystal-optical phased arrays (LC-OPA)-based optical beam steering with microradian resolution enabled by double gratings

Siyi Qin, Chen Liu, Jinyao Wang, Kexin Chen, Jingquan Xu, Songnian Fu, Deming Liu, and Yanli Ran
Appl. Opt. 58(15) 4091-4098 (2019)

Integrated lithium niobate optical phased array for two-dimensional beam steering

Gongcheng Yue and Yang Li
Opt. Lett. 48(14) 3633-3636 (2023)

On-chip silicon optical phased array for two-dimensional beam steering

David Kwong, Amir Hosseini, John Covey, Yang Zhang, Xiaochuan Xu, Harish Subbaraman, and Ray T. Chen
Opt. Lett. 39(4) 941-944 (2014)

Practical two-dimensional beam steering system using an integrated tunable laser and an optical phased array

Weichao Ma, Su Tan, Kuankuan Wang, Weihua Guo, Ye Liu, Lianggang Liao, Lianggang Zhou, Jun Zhou, Xin Li, Lei Liang, and Wangzhe Li
Appl. Opt. 59(32) 9985-9994 (2020)