Various embodiments may relate to a tunable optical device. The tunable optical device may include a ferroelectric layer including a ferroelectric material. The tunable optical device may also include one or more first electrodes on a first side of the ferroelectric layer. The tunable optical device may further include one or more second electrodes on a second side of the ferroelectric layer opposite the first side. A refractive index of the ferroelectric material may be changeable in response to a potential difference applied between the one or more first electrodes and the one or more second electrodes. The one or more first electrodes and the one or more second electrodes may be configured to allow visible light or infrared light to pass through.

Provided is an optical modulating device including a substrate including first and second trenches, a phase modulator in a region of the substrate, the phase modulator including an undoped region provided between the first and the second trenches, and first and a second doped regions which are apart from each other with the undoped region therebetween, wherein the phase modulator is configured to modulate a phase of light traveling through the undoped region based on a first electrical signal applied to the phase modulator, an amplifier including a first doped layer, a quantum well layer, a clad layer, and a second doped layer sequentially on the substrate, the amplifier overlapping at least a portion of the phase modulator and being configured to amplify the light based on a second electrical signal applied to the amplifier, and an insulating layer between the phase modulator and the amplifier.

An optical device includes a first substrate, a second substrate, a plurality of separation walls, one or more optical waveguides, and one or more spacers. The first substrate has a surface which extends in a first direction and a second direction intersecting the first direction. The second substrate faces the first substrate. The plurality of separation walls are positioned between the first substrate and the second substrate and extend in the first direction. The one or more optical waveguides are positioned between the first substrate and the second substrate and include one or more dielectric members which are positioned between the plurality of separation walls and which extend in the first direction. The one or more spacers are directly or indirectly sandwiched between the first substrate and the second substrate and positioned around the one or more optical waveguides.

An optical phased array device for a LIDAR sensor includes: a light source configured to irradiate a laser beam having a predetermined wavelength band; an input waveguide through which the laser beam irradiated from the light source passes; a slab waveguide disposed at an output end of the input waveguide to branch an optical signal input from the input waveguide; and a channel waveguide configured to distribute and guide the optical signal, branched by the slab waveguide, to M channels and to radiate the optical signal onto a free space. The channel waveguide may include a silia optical waveguide disposed for each of the M channels, and a length of each of the optical waveguides has a length difference ΔL from an adjacent waveguide.

A photonic processor computing engine device can include a photonic integrated circuit including an optical phased array having a plurality of radiating pixels that radiate optical signal beams. Each of the radiating pixels can include an optical antenna and an optical phase modulator. The engine can include an electronic control circuit positioned to receive the optical signal beams transmitted from the radiating pixels. The computing engine can further include an electronic feedback circuit in electrical communication with the focal plane array and the electronic control circuit to process a measured intensity of the optical signal beams received by the focal plane array from the optical phased array and provide a feedback signal to the electronic control circuit based on the measured intensity for recalibrating the optical phase modulators of the plurality of radiating pixels to control the phase of the optical signal beams emitted by the plurality of radiating pixels.

A photonic integrated circuit (PIC) is disclosed herein. The PIC can include a substrate, a main optical waveguide supported by the substrate. The main optical waveguide can be in communication with an electromagnetic radiation source, and configured to receive electromagnetic radiation from the electromagnetic radiation source. A first branch optical waveguide can be optically coupled to the main optical waveguide at a first location. An optical phased array (OPA) can include plurality of array elements, each having an optical antenna and an optical phase modulator. At least some array elements within a first subset of the plurality of array elements can be optically coupled to the first branch optical waveguide wherein locations of at least some of the plurality of array elements are aperiodic in one or more directions on the substrate.

An optical assembly includes a beam steering device and a holographic optical element. The beam steering device is switchable between different states including a first state and a second state. The beam steering device includes a first polarization-selective optical element and a first tunable optical retarder optically coupled with the first polarization-selective optical element. The holographic optical element is positioned relative to the beam steering device for receiving light from the beam steering device and projecting a first light pattern while the beam steering device is in the first state and a second light pattern distinct from the first light pattern while the beam steering device is in the second state.

A phase modulation active device and a method of driving the same are provided. The method may include configuring, for the phase modulation active device including a plurality of channels that modulate a phase of incident light, a phase profile indicating a phase modulation target value to be implemented by the phase modulation active device; setting a phase limit value of the phase modulation active device; generating a modified phase profile based on the phase profile by modifying the phase modulation target value, for at least one channel from the plurality of channels that meets or exceeds the phase limit value, to a modified phase modulation target value that is less than the phase limit value in the phase profile; and operating the phase modulation active device based on the modified phase profile. Thus, improved optical modulation performance may be achieved.

An example optical transceiver system, such as a solid-state light detection and ranging (lidar) system, includes a tunable, optically reflective metasurface to selectively reflect incident optical radiation as transmit scan lines at transmit steering angles between a first steering angle and a second steering angle. In some embodiments, a feedback element, such as a volume Bragg grating element, may lock a laser to narrow the band of optical radiation. A receiver may include a tunable, optically reflective metasurface for receiver line-scanning or a two-dimensional array of detector elements forming a set of discrete receive scan lines. In embodiments incorporating a two-dimensional array of detector elements, receiver optics may direct optical radiation incident at each of a plurality of discrete receive steering angles to a unique subset of the discrete receive scan lines of detector elements.

A device includes a photonic integrated circuit having an optical phased array. The optical phased array includes multiple array elements, where each array element includes (i) an antenna element configured to transmit or receive optical signals and (ii) a phase modulator configured to phase-shift the optical signals transmitted or received by the antenna element. The device also includes multiple digital register in integrated circuit (DRIIC) cells, where each DRIIC cell is associated with one of the array elements. The DRIIC cells are configured to receive digital inputs and to provide outputs to the phase modulators of the associated array elements in order to control the phase-shifts of the optical signals transmitted or received by the antenna elements based on the digital inputs.