Large-angle liquid crystal optical phased array scanning assembly

Abstract

The invention discloses a large-angle liquid crystal optical phased array scanning assembly which comprises a laser, a quarter-wave plate, an optical waveguide, a cholesteric liquid crystal device and a liquid crystal optical phased array. Laser emitted by the laser passes through the quarter-wave plate, then is coupled into the optical waveguide and is propagated along the optical waveguide. The optical waveguide is of an arc-shaped structure, a metal reflecting layer is arranged on the inner side of the optical waveguide, and an ITO film layer is arranged on the outer side of the optical waveguide. A plurality of cholesteric liquid crystal devices are arranged on the outer side of the ITO film layer, and an ITO electrode, a quarter-wave plate and a liquid crystal optical phased array are sequentially arranged on the outer side of each cholesteric liquid crystal device; the cholesteric liquid crystal device is used as a selective switch for laser transmission or reflection. According to the invention, through selection of the cholesteric liquid crystal unit device, laser in the waveguide is reflected or transmitted to the liquid crystal optical phased array, so that scanning control is realized; a plurality of cholesteric liquid crystal unit devices and a plurality of liquid crystal optical phased arrays are adopted, so that large-angle scanning can be realized.

Description

technical field [0001] The invention belongs to the field of liquid crystal optical phased array technology and liquid crystal optoelectronic device technology, and particularly relates to a large-angle liquid crystal optical phased array scanning component. Background technique [0002] Beam deflection scanning technology is widely used in laser communication, target tracking and other fields. At present, the control methods of laser scanning at home and abroad are roughly divided into two types: mechanical and non-mechanical. Mechanical deflection relies on mechanical devices to change the direction of the optical axis to achieve beam deflection. Its response is slow, there is mechanical inertia during scanning, and the device is bulky and expensive. Disadvantages such as high cost; non-mechanical beam deflection technology With the deepening of research and the maturity of manufacturing technology, liquid crystal optical phased array (LCOPA) technology has become a resear...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

At present, the control methods of laser scanning at home and abroad are roughly divided into two types: mechanical and non-mechanical. Mechanical deflection relies on mechanical devices to change the direction of the optical axis to achieve beam deflection. Its response is slow, there is mechanical inertia during scanning, and the device is bulky and expensive. Disadvantages such as high cost; non-mechanical beam deflection technology With the deepening of research and the maturity of manufacturing technology, liquid crystal optical phased array (LCOPA) technology has become a research hotspot. LCOPA has no inertia, high scanning accuracy and low SWaP (size, weight and power consumption) and other advantages, it is an important research direction in beam deflection

[0003] Liquid crystal optical phased array technology overcomes many shortcomings of mechanical deflection technology, but liquid crystal optical phased array technology also faces the problem of narrow beam scanning range (about ±3 °), mainly affected by the array size of the liquid crystal cell, the depth of phase modulation and the current process technology

At present, the large-angle scanning method adopts cascading technology. The cascading of devices brings high cost consumption, and the large number of cascading layers of light beams leads to large insertion loss.

Images