Optomechanical antennas for on-chip beam-steering

TL;DR

This paper introduces a low-power, on-chip optomechanical antenna system for rapid, full two-dimensional beam-steering of monochromatic light, overcoming limitations of traditional bulky or scalable phased array methods.

Contribution

The authors present a novel silicon photonic system using photonic-phononic waveguides for efficient, reconfigurable beam-steering with high resolution and wide field of view.

Findings

Achieves 44° field of view with 880 resolvable spots

Uses milliwatt-level mechanical power for wavelength sweeping

Enables rapid reconfiguration of beam direction and shape

Abstract

Rapid and low-power control over the direction of a radiating light field is a major challenge in photonics and a key enabling technology for emerging sensors and free-space communication links. Current approaches based on bulky motorized components are limited by their high cost and power consumption, while on-chip optical phased arrays face challenges in scaling and programmability. Here, we propose a solid-state approach to beam-steering using optomechanical antennas. We combine recent progress in simultaneous control of optical and mechanical waves with remarkable advances in on-chip optical phased arrays to enable low-power and full two-dimensional beam-steering of monochromatic light. We present a design of a silicon photonic system made of photonic-phononic waveguides that achieves 44$^{\circ}$ field of view with $880$ resolvable spots by sweeping the mechanical wavelength with about a milliwatt of mechanical power. Using mechanical waves as nonreciprocal, active gratings allows us to quickly reconfigure the beam direction, beam shape, and the number of beams. It also enables us to distinguish between light that we send and receive.