Lu Ping, Xu Weihan, Zhu Chen, Liu Chuxin, Lu Liangjun, Zhou Linjie, Chen Jianping
Opt Lett. 2021 Apr 1;46(7):1566-1569. doi: 10.1364/OL.419828.
We design and demonstrate the first, to the best of our knowledge, silicon-based multi-beam optical phased array (MOPA), incorporating a 4×4 Butler matrix beamforming network. The one-dimensional end-fire array consists of 16 emitters at a uniform pitch together with their corresponding phase shifters and is shared among the beams to realize large-scale aliasing-free beam-steering at reduced complexity. Experimental results show that the device is capable of individual beam aliasing-free operation with a field of view up to 46°. The steering envelope shows a plateau where the peak intensities fluctuate within 0.5 dB. The beamforming and beam-steering performance are also evaluated for simultaneous multi-beam operation. Our work validates the feasibility of beamforming-network-based MOPAs, which are promising for applications including light detection and ranging and free-space optical communication.
据我们所知，我们设计并展示了首个基于硅的多光束光学相控阵（MOPA），它集成了一个4×4巴特勒矩阵波束形成网络。一维端射阵列由16个间距均匀的发射器及其相应的移相器组成，并在各光束间共享，以降低复杂度实现大规模无混叠波束转向。实验结果表明，该器件能够在高达46°的视场内实现单个光束的无混叠操作。转向包络显示出一个平台期，峰值强度在0.5 dB内波动。还对同时多光束操作的波束形成和波束转向性能进行了评估。我们的工作验证了基于波束形成网络的MOPA的可行性，这对于包括光探测和测距以及自由空间光通信在内的应用很有前景。
