A variable wavelength light source and an apparatus including the same are disclosed. The variable wavelength light source includes: a first waveguide; a second waveguide spaced apart from the first waveguide; a first optical amplifier including a first gain medium; and a second optical amplifier including a second gain medium that is different from the first gain medium.

A coherent frequency modulated receiver for receiving and detecting arriving optical signals which comprises an electrically controllable optical beam scanner receiving optical input beams arriving at different angles in a field of view of the electrically controllable optical beam scanner, the electrically controllable optical beam scanner conveying a scanned optical input beam as its output optical beam; a grating coupler responsive to the output or reflected optical beam of the electrically controllable optical beams scanner, the grating coupler having a waveguided output; an optical local oscillator laser having a waveguided output; an FMCW signal generator; an optical modulator responsive to the optical waveguided outputs of the optical local oscillator laser and also to an electrical FMCW signal from the FMCW signal generator; a pair of second order non-linear optical elements for frequency upconverting respective outputs of the optical modulator and the grating coupler; and at least one photodiode optically coupled to an outputs of the pair of second order non-linear optical elements.

A solid state electrically variable focal length lens includes a plurality of concentric rings of electro-optical material, wherein the electro-optical material comprises any material of a class of hydrogen-doped phase-change metal oxide and wherein each respective concentric ring further includes a transparent resistive sheet on a first face of the respective concentric ring, wherein the transparent resistive sheet extends along the first face, and a first voltage coupled between a first end and a second end of the transparent resistive sheet, wherein the first voltage may be varied to select an optical beam deflection angle.

According to various embodiments, a tunable optical metasurface includes an array of elongated resonator rails arranged parallel to one another. Liquid crystal is positioned within an optical field region between adjacent resonator rails. A controller can selectively apply a voltage differential pattern to the elongated resonator rails to adjust a phase response thereof. According to various embodiments, a cross-backplane reflector is utilized that allows for mid-array routing or edge-array routing of electrical connections between the controller and the resonator rails. The cross-backplane reflector comprises a plurality of elongated optical reflectors extending parallel to one another and perpendicular to the array of resonator rails. An optically transmissive (e.g., transparent) dielectric may electrically separate the resonator rails from the optical reflectors. A pattern of vias formed therein facilitates electrical connections between the optical reflectors and the resonator rails.

There is provided a diffractive waveguide device comprising: a light source, at least one light detector, an SBG device comprising a multiplicity of separately switchable SBG elements sandwiched between transparent substrate to which transparent electrodes have been applied. The substrates function as a light guide. Each SBG element encodes image information to be projected on an image surface. Each SBG element when in a diffracting state diffracts light out of the light guide to form an image region on an image surface. The light detector detects light scattered from an object disposed in proximity to the image surface and illuminated by said image region.

Variable liquid crystal devices for controlling the propagation of light through a liquid crystal layer use a frequency dependent material to dynamically reconfigure effective electrode structures in the device. The drive signal source uses pulse-width modulation to set a frequency and an amplitude of the drive signal.

An optical phased array includes, in part, N optical signal emitting elements, and N lenses each associated with a different one of the N optical signal emitting elements and positioned to form an image of its associated signal emitting element, where N is an integer greater than 1. The optical signal emitting elements may be a grating coupler, an edge coupler, and the like. At least a number of the lenses may be formed from Silicon. The optical phased array may optionally include one or more concave or convex lens positioned between the signal emitting elements and the N lenses. The optical signal emitting elements may be formed in a silicon dioxide layer formed above a semiconductor substrate and the lenses may be formed from Silicon disposed above the silicon dioxide layer. The optical signal emitting elements may receive an optical signal generated by the same source.

The present invention relates to a controllable diffraction device for a light modulator device. The controllable diffraction device comprises at least two substrates, at least one electrode on each of said substrates facing each other, and liquid crystals forming at least one liquid crystal layer arranged between said electrodes on said substrates. The orientation of the liquid crystals is controllable by a voltage supplied to the electrodes. The liquid crystal layer is provided on at least one alignment layer arranged on at least one electrode on said substrates. The liquid crystals close to the alignment layer are pre-oriented by at least one pre-tilt angle relative to the alignment layer such that the resulting light diffraction in opposite spatial directions is approximately equal.

Provided is an optical modulating device including an incidence optical system, an optical modulating assembly including a plurality of nano-antennas that form a meta-grating based on a driving signal, the optical modulating assembly being configured to change a traveling direction of incidence light incident at an incidence angle from the incidence optical system based on an effective displacement of the meta-grating according to the driving signal, and an emission optical system configured to emit light steered by the optical modulating assembly, wherein the emission optical system is further configured to emit first-order diffraction light of the incidence light based on the meta-grating.

A laser beam steering device and a system including the laser beam steering device are provided. The laser beam steering device includes a refractive index change layer having a refractive index that changes based on an electrical signal; at least one antenna pattern disposed above the refractive index change layer; a wavelength selection layer disposed under the refractive index change layer and configured to correspond to a wavelength of a laser beam incident onto the laser beam steering device; and a driver configured to apply the electrical signal to the refractive index change layer.