title: Wide-angle, nonmechanical beam steering with high throughput utilizing polarization gratings.
abstract: We introduce and demonstrate a ternary nonmechanical beam steering device based on polarization gratings (PGs). Our beam steering device employs multiple stages consisting of combinations of PGs and wave plates, which allows for a unique three-way (ternary) steering design. Ultrahigh efficiency (∼100%) and polarization sensitive diffraction of individual PGs allow wide steering angles (among three diffracted orders) with extremely high throughput. We report our successful demonstration of the three-stage beam steerer having a 44° field of regard with 1.7° resolution at 1550  nm wavelength. A substantially high throughput of 78%-83% is observed that is mainly limited by electrode absorption and Fresnel losses.
authors.affiliation: Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, North Carolina 27695, USA.
authors.forename: Jihwan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Chulwoo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Steve
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Serati
authors.forename: Michael J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Escuti