Optical phased arrays with evanescently-coupled antennas

Title: Optical phased arrays with evanescently-coupled antennas

An optical phased array formed of a large number of nanophotonic antenna elements can be used to project complex images into the far field. These nanophotonic phased arrays, including the nanophotonic antenna elements and waveguides, can be formed on a single chip of silicon using complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) processes. Directional couplers evanescently couple light from the waveguides to the nanophotonic antenna elements, which emit the light as beams with phases and amplitudes selected so that the emitted beams interfere in the far field to produce the desired pattern. In some cases, each antenna in the phased array may be optically coupled to a corresponding variable delay line, such as a thermo-optically tuned waveguide or a liquid-filled cell, which can be used to vary the phase of the antenna's output (and the resulting far-field interference pattern).

Inventors:: Sun, Jie; Watts, Michael R; Yaacobi, Ami; Timurdogan, Erman

Issue Date:: 2015-03-24

OSTI Identifier:: 1174183

Assignee:: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, MA) SSO

Patent Number(s):: 8,988,754

Application Number:: 14/149,099

Contract Number:: AC04-94AL85000

Resource Relation:: Patent File Date: 2014 Jan 07

Research Org:: Sandia National Lab. (SNL-CA), Livermore, CA (United States)

Sponsoring Org:: USDOE

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 42 ENGINEERING

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Other works cited in this record:

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journal, January 2011

Doylend, J. K.; Heck, M. J. R.; Bovington, J. T.
Optics Express, Vol. 19, Issue 22, p. 21595-21604
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Improving the Mismatch between Light and Nanoscale Objects with Gold Bowtie Nanoantennas
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Schuck, P. J.; Fromm, D. P.; Sundaramurthy, A.
Physical Review Letters, Vol. 94, Issue 1, Article No. 017402
DOI: 10.1103/PhysRevLett.94.017402

Reconstruction of an object from the modulus of its Fourier transform
journal, January 1978

Fienup, J. R.
Optics Letters, Vol. 3, Issue 1, p. 27-29
DOI: 10.1364/OL.3.000027

Electronically controlled optical beam-steering by an active phased array of metallic nanoantennas
journal, January 2013

DeRose, C. T.; Kekatpure, R. D.; Trotter, D. C.
Optics Express, Vol. 21, Issue 4, p. 5198-5208
DOI: 10.1364/OE.21.005198

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