Wavefront shaping for reconfigurable beam steering in lithium niobate multimode waveguide

Abstract

Reconfigurable photonic devices are important constituents for future optical integrated circuits, where electro-optic manipulation of the light field in a lithium niobate (LN) waveguide is one of the promising solutions. Herein, we demonstrate a paradigm shift of the beam steering mechanism where reconfigurable beam steering is enabled by the wavefront shaping technology. Furthermore, this strategy is fully compatible with the electro-optic tuning mechanism of the LN multimode waveguide, where microstructured serrated array electrodes are employed to fine tune the output beam upon its reconfigurable output position. Our results provide new, to the best of our knowledge, insight for molding the flow of light in multimode waveguides and shed new light on beam steering photonic devices.