Cascaded domain engineering optical phased array for beam steering

Abstract

Optical phased arrays (OPAs) encounter a formidable trade-off between performance and design due to the intricacies of their system. Here, we propose a cascaded domain engineering OPA structure via domain engineering. A six-layer cascaded domain engineering OPA prototype, consisting of 32 array elements, was designed, fabricated, and characterized. In contrast to the existing OPA scheme, only one control electronics is used to control the entire array elements, regardless of the number of array elements. The speed of beam steering is demonstrated up to 3 MHz in the bulk LiNbO3 (LN) demo, based on the fast response of the electro-optic crystal. Meantime, by demonstrating dynamic beam steering continually, its capability of continuous scanning and continually active phase tunability has been verified. The utilization of such cascaded domain engineering techniques provides a promising approach to OPA and related applications.