1-D electro-optic beam steering device

Abstract

In this paper, we present the design and fabrication of a 1D beam steering device based on planar electro-optic thermal-plastic prisms and a collimator lens array. With the elimination of moving parts, the proposed device is able to overcome the mechanical limitations of present scanning devices, such as fatigue and low operating frequency, while maintaining a small system footprint (~0.5mm×0.5mm). From experimental data, our prototype device is able to achieve a maximum deflection angle of 5.6° for a single stage prism design and 29.2° for a cascaded three prisms stage design. The lens array shows a 4µm collimated beam diameter.

Angle amplifier in a 2D beam scanning system based on peristrophic multiplexed volume Bragg gratings

“…Due to the outstanding performance in size, agility, and reliability of non-mechanical beam steering devices, they play an important role in optoelectronic systems such as laser radar, freespace laser communication, laser weapons, and laser countermeasures [1,2]. Various approaches have been explored to achieve non-mechanical beam steering control, including microlens arrays [3,4], optical phased arrays based on dynamic liquid crystal (LCOPA) [5][6][7][8], Integrated Optical Phased Arrays [9][10][11][12], liquid crystal prism [13,14], liquid crystal polarization gratings (LCPG) [15][16][17], liquid crystal polarization lens (LCPL) [18][19][20], electro-optic deflectors [21,22], etc. In highpower scenarios, it is still difficult for a single electro-optic element to guarantee a high damage threshold while achieving wide-angle capability, which means that high-power beam steering systems face a great challenge with insufficient deflecting angle.…”