Integrated lithium niobate optical phased array for two-dimensional beam steering

Abstract

Optical phased arrays (OPAs) with high speed, low power consumption, and low insertion loss are appealing for many applications, such as light detection and ranging, free-space communication, image projection, and imaging. These OPAs can be achieved by fully leveraging the high electro-optic modulation speed, low driving voltage, and low optical loss of integrated lithium niobate (LN) photonics. Here we present an integrated LN OPA operating in the near-infrared regime, demonstrating a 24 * 8{\deg} two-dimensional beam steering, a far-field beam spot with full-width at half-maximum of 2 * 0.6{\deg}, and a side lobe suppression level of 10 dB. Additionally, our OPA's phase modulator features a half wave voltage of 6 V. Our OPA opens the door of high speed, low power-consumption, and low loss integrated LN OPAs for various applications.