High-quality electro-optic beam steering

Optical beam steering is essential for free-space optical communication, light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and other fields. Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), as an efficient integrated photonics platform, offers strong electro-optic (EO) effect, low propagation loss, high-speed, and low-power modulation, making it highly attractive for optical phased array (OPA) based beam steering. However, despite these advantages, OPAs still face inherent trade-offs among field of view, sidelobe suppression, and scanning resolution. Recently, Prof. Huihui Lu's group presented a two-dimensional (2D) EO-steered OPA using a non-uniformly spaced X-cut TFLN superlattice-waveguide array and a trapezoidal grating emitter. The compact device achieves narrow main beam, wide steering range and high sidelobe suppression, demonstrating great potential for high-performance beam-steering applications.