A
lidar-based apparatus and method are used for the
solid state steering of
laser beams using Photonic Integrated Circuits. Integrated optic design and fabrication micro- and nanotechnologies are used for the production of
chip-scale optical splitters that distribute an optical
signal from a
laser essentially uniformly to an array of pixels, said pixels comprising tunable optical
delay lines and optical antennas. Said antennas achieve out-of-plane
coupling of light.As the
delay lines of said antenna-containing pixels in said array are tuned, each antenna emits light of a specific phase to form a desired far-field
radiation pattern through interference of these emissions. Said array serves the function of
solid state optical
phased array.By incorporating a large number of antennas, high-resolution far-field patterns can be achieved by an optical
phased array, supporting the
radiation pattern beam forming and steering needed in
solid state
lidar, as well as the generation of arbitrary
radiation patterns as needed in three-dimensional
holography,
optical memory,
mode matching for
optical space-division
multiplexing,
free space communications, and biomedical sciences. Whereas imaging from an array is conventionally transmitted through the intensity of the pixels, the optical
phased array allows imaging through the control of the optical phase of pixels that receive coherent light
waves from a single source.