Refraction-type LC beam steering device with continuous beam control, wide-band availability, and high scan rate

Abstract

LC-based non-mechanical beam steering has attracted considerable interest in recent years because of the urgent need from sensing technology such as light detection and ranging (LiDAR) for self-driving cars. The most well-known LC-based non-mechanical beam steering method is the diffraction-type device (optical phased array). However, the diffraction type has drawbacks in beam splitting, discontinuous angle control, availability limited at a single wavelength, response speed, and a small steering angle. In this study, we demonstrate a refraction-type LC beam steering device with continuous beam control, wide-band availability, and high scan rate.