Beam Steering, Beam Shaping, and Intensity Modulation Based on VCSEL Photonics

A beam-steering device has been a key element for various sensing and imaging applications. We proposed a beam-steering device based on a vertical-cavity surface-emitting laser (VCSEL)-based waveguide structure. We show a giant steering angle and ultrahigh steering resolution at the same time by increasing the length of a device. In this paper, we present our high-resolution beam-steering concept based on VCSEL photonics. A steering angle of over 60° and a number of resolution points over 1000 are demonstrated for millimeter-scale devices, which is the highest in nonmechanical beam-steering devices. We also demonstrate the on-chip integration of a beam-steering function with a VCSEL. In addition, we demonstrate additional functionalities including the creation of vortex beams and low-voltage amplitude modulation with beam steering.