In an optical emitter device, when point emitters are placed on the focal plane of a lens system, each individual point emitter will point to a specific free space angle depending on the position of the point emitter relative to the longitudinal central axis of the lens system. The plurality of point emitters are arranged in an array comprising a plurality of rows of point emitters and a plurality of columns of point emitters. Each of the plurality of point emitters comprises a grating coupler configured to emit a respective beam of light in a respective transmission direction. Each grating coupler comprises a first plurality of periodically spaced optical waveguide grating structures, at least some of the optical waveguide grating structures including a notch, whereby a first portion of each optical waveguide grating structure extends a different height than a second portion.

Systems and methods for steering an optical beam in two dimensions are disclosed. The system includes a substrate comprising an acousto-optic antenna array and an acoustic transducer. Each antenna of the antenna array includes a high-confinement surface waveguide carrying a light signal. The acoustic transducer imparts acoustic energy into each surface waveguide as a mechanical wave. Interaction of the light signal and mechanical wave in each surface waveguide induces light to scatter into free space. The light scattered out of the plurality of waveguides collectively defines the output beam. The longitudinal angle of output beam, relative to the substrate, is determined by the relative frequencies of the mechanical waves and the light signals. The transverse angle of the output beam is controlled by controlling the relative phases of the mechanical waves and/or light signals across the surface-waveguide array.

A pupil replication waveguide for a projector display includes a slab of transparent material for propagating display light in the slab via total internal reflection. A diffraction grating is supported by the slab. The diffraction grating includes a plurality of tapered slanted fringes in a substrate for out-coupling the display light from the slab by diffraction into a blazed diffraction order. A greater portion of the display light is out-coupled into the blazed diffraction order, and a smaller portion of the display light is out-coupled into a non-blazed diffraction order. The tapered fringes result in the duty cycle of the diffraction grating varying along the thickness direction of the diffraction grating, to facilitate suppressing the portion of the display light out-coupled into the non-blazed diffraction order.

A liquid crystal-based non-mechanical beam steering device that permits steering in the mid-wave infrared and has a chalcogenide waveguide. The waveguide core, the subcladding, or both comprise a chalcogenide glass. The liquid crystal-based non-mechanical beam steering device has a tapered subcladding and a liquid crystal layer.

An integrated optical beam steering device includes a planar Luneburg lens that collimates beams from different inputs in different directions within the lens plane. It also includes a curved (e.g., semi-circular or arced) grating coupler that diffracts the collimated beams out of the lens plane. The beams can be steered in the plane by controlling the direction along which the lens is illuminated and out of the plane by varying the beam wavelength. Unlike other beam steering devices, this device can operate over an extremely wide field of view—up to 180°—without any aberrations off boresight. In other words, the beam quality is uniform in all directions, unlike with aplanatic lenses, thanks to the circular symmetry of the planar Luneburg lens, which may be composed of subwavelength features. The lens is also robust to misalignment and fabrication imperfections and can be made using standard CMOS processes.

A scalable independent unit cell device architecture may include a phase-shifting element and a phase shift driver both integrated within the unit cell device. The phase shift driver may be coupled to the phase-shifting element and the phase shift driver may independently control the phase-shifting element to produce an optical beam having a desired phase. The unit cell device may further include an optical antenna that outputs the beam having the desired phase. The unit cell device may be formed as an opto-electronic hybrid optimized to leverage direct bond hybridization (DBH) to attach an electronic integrated circuit wafer to a side of a photonic integrated circuit wafer. The resulting unit cell device (i.e., 24 microns) may tightly integrate individual element-level phase control, which may be implemented within large-scale two-dimensional photonic arrays with hemispherical beam steering.

There is provided an optical scanning element, which has a large scan angle, is quickly responsive, and can be downsized. An optical scanning element according to an embodiment of the present invention includes: a first light-deflecting unit for emitting light to a first area; and a second light-deflecting unit for emitting the light that has been emitted to the first area to a second area wider than the first area. The first light-deflecting unit is configured to be changed in refractive index by a change in applied voltage, and to adjust the first area through the change in refractive index, and the second light-deflecting unit is configured to adjust the second area through diffraction.

A programmable two-dimensional simultaneous multi-beam optically operated phased array receiver chip is manufactured based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) and indium phosphide (InP) semiconductor manufacturing processes, including the SiN process. The InP-based semiconductor is used for preparing a laser array chip and a semiconductor optical amplifier array chip, the SiN is used for preparing an optical power divider, and the SOI semiconductor is used for preparing a silicon optical modulator, a germanium-silicon detector, an optical wavelength multiplexer, a true delay line, and other passive optical devices. The whole integration of the receiver chip is realized through heterogeneous integration of the InP-based chip and the SOI-based chip. Simultaneous multi-beam scanning can be realized through peripheral circuit programming control. The chip not only can realize two-dimensional multi-beam scanning, but also has strong expansibility, such that the chip can be used for ultra-wideband high-capacity wireless communication and simultaneous multi-target radar recognition systems.

Devices and systems having a vertical waveguide array are provided having a plurality of vertical waveguides disposed on a support substrate in an array, where each vertical waveguide further includes a reflective layer positioned to reflect impinging light toward the support substrate, a core region extending from the reflective layer to the support substrate, the core region further comprising, a first contact region and a second contact region electrically isolated from one another disposed between the reflective layer and the support substrate, and a low refractive index material disposed between the first contact region and the second contact region. The first contact region and the second contact region are operable to create a voltage drop across the low refractive index material and the low refractive index material has a lower refractive index compared to the refractive indexes of the first contact region and the second contact region. Additionally, a confinement structure surrounds the periphery of each waveguide, where the confinement structure has a lower refractive index compared to the refractive indexes of the first contact region and the second contact region.

A phase-shifter for a light-transmitting waveguide is segmented into multiple segments that can be calibrated to the overall length of a conventional single phase-shifter. Each segment receives a control signal, which can be a single bit signal, with the phase-shift capability of the segmented phase-shifter controlled by which segment(s) receive(s) a control signal. In one implementation, a binary weighting is applied to determine segment lengths. Smaller segments can be increased in length to achieve a 2π offset of the phase shift produced by the segment while maintaining the same binary relationship among segments. In another embodiment, multiple segments of uniform lengths can be used for a single phase-shifter with each segment controlled by an n-bit signal.