Abstract
Optical phased array (OPA) devices are being actively investigated to develop compact solid-state beam scanners, which are essential in fields such as LiDAR, free-space optical links, biophotonics, etc. Based on the unique nature of perfluorinated polymers, we propose a polymer waveguide OPA with the advantages of low driving power and high optical throughput. Unlike silicon photonic OPAs, the polymer OPAs enable sustainable phase distribution control during beam scanning, which reduces the burden of beamforming. Moreover, by incorporating a tunable wavelength laser comprising a polymer waveguide Bragg reflector, two-dimensional beam scanning is demonstrated, which facilitates the development of laser-integrated polymeric OPA beam scanners.
Highlights
Optical phased array (OPA) devices are being actively investigated to develop compact solid-state beam scanners, which are essential in fields such as LiDAR, free-space optical links, biophotonics, etc
This paper proposed an OPA device that can be integrated with a tunable laser based on highly fluorinated polymer materials
Two-dimensional beam scanning was realized via phase distribution control and wavelength tuning
Summary
Optical phased array (OPA) devices are being actively investigated to develop compact solid-state beam scanners, which are essential in fields such as LiDAR, free-space optical links, biophotonics, etc. Photonic integrated circuits open the way to realize compact optical phased array (OPA) devices for low-cost compact LiDARs, required for self-driving cars. Silicon photonic devices with a small guided mode and narrow waveguide pitch enable wide scanning of the diffracted beam from the waveguide array. A beam scanner with a divergence angle of 0.03° and a scanning angle of 45° was developed using an OPA with a 1024 waveguide array and 2 μm output pitch via a CMOS fabrication p rocess[9]. In silicon photonic devices, the strong confinement of waveguide mode caused nonlinear phase modulation depending on the optical power[1,14]. The initial phase distribution of the output light passing through the phase modulator array was barely uniform owing to the unavoidable fluctuations of the waveguide pattern widths in the fabrication of extremely narrow silicon waveguides. A hybrid device integrating silicon phase modulators was p roposed[20]
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
