A new electro-optic waveguide platform, which provides unprecedented voltage control over optical phase delays (> 2mm), with very low loss (< 0.5 dB/cm) and rapid response time (sub millisecond), will be presented. This technology, developed by Vescent Photonics, is based upon a unique liquid-crystal waveguide geometry, which exploits the tremendous electro-optic response of liquid crystals while circumventing their historic limitations. The waveguide geometry provides nematic relaxation speeds in the 10's of microseconds and LC scattering losses that are reduced by orders of magnitude from bulk transmissive LC optics. The exceedingly large optical phase delays accessible with this technology enable the design and construction of a new class of previously unrealizable photonic devices. Examples include: 2-D analog non-mechanical beamsteerers, chip-scale widely tunable lasers, chip-scale Fourier transform spectrometer (< 5 nm resolution demonstrated), widely tunable micro-ring resonators, tunable lenses, ultra-low power (< 5 microWatts) optical switches, true optical time delay devices for phased array antennas, and many more. All of these devices may benefit from established manufacturing technologies and ultimately may be as inexpensive as a calculator display. Furthermore, this new integrated photonic architecture has applications in a wide array of commercial and defense markets including: remote sensing, micro-LADAR, OCT, FSO, laser illumination, phased array radar, etc. Performance attributes of several example devices and application data will be presented. In particular, we will present a non-mechanical beamsteerer that steers light in both the horizontal and vertical dimensions.

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We will describe the construction and performance of a prototype high speed, non-mechanically scanned, laser system that is coupled to a custom planar waveguide optical amplifier. The system provides high speed (10 kHz) scanning of >200 far-field resolvable spots, with a path toward >500 spots at 10 kHz demonstrated. An enabling component for this system is the new EO scanner that provides previously unrealizable performance such as sub-millisecond scanning, full 2-D operation with only three control electrodes, fully refractive (no side-lobes) scanning, no blind spot within the field of view (FOV), and a large continuous scan angle. Scanners with near perfect Gaussian output beams, throughputs greater than 50%, and a 50 0 × 15 o continuous field-of-view will be discussed. Furthermore, a path toward much larger FOVs will also be presented. We will also present the design and construction of custom planar waveguide amplifiers to which our EO scanner can be free space end-fire coupled. The amplifiers and scanners were designed for operation at 1.645 microns. This will enable long-range, eye-safe LADAR and sensing applications, such as CH4 sensors.

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