Picosecond Wide‐Angle Dynamic Beam Steering for Object Tracking

Abstract

AbstractBeam steering plays a vital role in light detection and ranging (LiDAR). However, the scanning speed is below megahertz (MHz) in current LiDAR systems. Frequency‐gradient metasurface has been reported to achieve gigahertz (GHz) beam steering with 25° scanning angle in two dimensions. However, the fabrication of millions of form‐varying nanoscale meta‐atoms poses challenges in operation efficiency, massive production, and overall cost‐effectiveness when the size goes beyond millimeter scale. Here, a dynamic beam steering comprising periodic grating nanostructures fabricated through nanoimprint lithography with an ultrafast scanning rate up to GHz (≈81 ps) and ultra‐wide three‐dimensional (3D) fields of view up to 53° × 23° is reported, which shows the powerful acquisition of 3D space data. The detection distance of object reaches to ≈230 m. This work demonstrates a wide‐angle and high‐speed beam steering, and paves a robust way to realize cost‐efficient, high‐volume manufacturing, and powerful 3D all‐solid‐state LiDAR for next‐generation intelligent vision and self‐driving technologies.