Dually modulated photonic crystal lasers for wide-range flash illumination

Abstract

Flash light sources with a wide field of view (FOV) are indispensable in various fields such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR), optical wireless communication, and adaptive lighting. However, conventional flash light sources, which combine lasers with external optical elements, tend to suffer from high complexity, large size, and high cost. In this study, we investigate a new wide-FOV flash light source which does not require external optical elements, based on a dually modulated photonic crystal surface-emitting laser (PCSEL). First, we propose and design the concept of a photonic crystal into which information of gradually varying diffraction vectors is introduced in order to artificially broaden the divergence angle. We then experimentally demonstrate photonic crystals based on this concept. Finally, by arraying 100 such lasers with mutually different central emission angles and driving all of these lasers simultaneously, we successfully achieve optics-free, 4-W flash illumination over a FOV of 30° × 30° at a wavelength of 940 nm.