A new electro-optic waveguide architecture and the unprecedented devices it enables

Abstract

A new electro-optic waveguide platform, which provides unprecedented electro-optical phase delays (> 1mm), with very low loss (< 0.5 dB/cm) and rapid response time (sub millisecond), is presented. This technology, developed by Vescent Photonics, is based upon a unique liquid-crystal waveguide geometry, which exploits the tremendous electro-optic response of liquid crystals while circumventing historic limitations of liquid crystals. The exceedingly large optical phase delays accessible with this technology enable the design and construction of a new class of previously unrealizable photonic devices. Examples include: a 1-D non-mechanical, analog beamsteerer with an 80 o field of regard, a chip-scale widely tunable laser, a chip-scale Fourier transform spectrometer (< 5 nm resolution demonstrated), widely tunable micro-ring resonators, tunable lenses, ultra-low power (< 5 microWatts) optical switches, true optical time delay (up to 10 ns), and many more. All of these devices may benefit from established manufacturing technologies and ultimately may be as inexpensive as a calculator display. Furthermore, this new integrated photonic architecture has applications in a wide array of commercial and defense markets including: remote sensing, micro-LADAR, OCT, laser illumination, phased array radar, optical communications, etc. Performance attributes of several example devices are presented.

Liquid crystal waveguides: new devices enabled by >1000 waves of optical phase control

“…Figure 6 illustrates a few possibilities, all of which have been reduced to various levels of prototypes. [10][11][12][13] In addition to these, LC-waveguides may also be used for optical coherence tomography, true optical time delays, tunable lenses, optical switches, and many more. In the rest of this proceedings we provide some examples of new photonic devices that are enabled by LC-waveguides: i) a chip-scale non-mechanical Fourier Transform Spectrometer, ii) non-mechanical wide angle beamsteerers, iii) chip-scale widely tunable lasers, iv) ultra-low power optical switch, and v) voltage tunable micro-ring resonator.…”

“…To date we have demonstrated: ultra-wide field of view (270 o demonstrated) non-mechanical laser beamsteerers, FTIR spectrometers on a chip with < 5 nm resolution, chip-scale widely tunable lasers (nearly 40 nm tunability demonstrated), ultra-low power (< 5 μWatts) tunable micro-ring filters and Mach-Zehnder switches, and many more. [10][11][12][13] All of these devices may be in small LCD-like packages that can ultimately be as low cost as a calculator display.…”

“…Vescent's proprietary liquid-crystal (LC) waveguide architecture [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13] provides unprecedented voltage control over optical phase (> 2 mm), orders of magnitude more than any other technology, e.g., liquid crystal optical phased arrays 14 or MEMs. This previously unrealizable level of control makes possible new devices with remarkable performance attributes.…”

A new spectrometer for planetary exploration

“…This increased level of control has already made possible new devices with remarkable performance attributes, including ultrawide fields of view (80 • ), nonmechanical laser beam steerers, chip-scale lasers with nearly 40nm tunability, and ultra-low-power (<5µW) tunable microring filters and Mach-Zehnder switches. [3][4][5] All of these devices can be housed in small LCD-like packages that can ultimately be as low cost as a calculator display. In the current Vescent-JPL collaboration, we are exploiting this architecture to build a new generation of EO-FTS systems.…”