Ultrawide-angle diffraction-limited 2D beam steering via hybrid integrated metasurface-photonic circuit

Fuente: arXiv
Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: He, Zhiping, Ranno, Luigi, Burns, Padraic, Yang, Fan, Lin, Hung-I, Peters, Maarten R. A., Zheng, Hanyu, Chen, Rui, Tan, Yi Ji, Lian, Chuanyu, Dostart, Nathan, Kim, Hyun Jung, Ríos, Carlos, Gu, Tian, Hu, Juejun
Format: Preprint
Published: 2026
Subjects:
Online Access:
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
_version_ 1866913032662155264
author He, Zhiping
Ranno, Luigi
Burns, Padraic
Yang, Fan
Lin, Hung-I
Peters, Maarten R. A.
Zheng, Hanyu
Chen, Rui
Tan, Yi Ji
Lian, Chuanyu
Dostart, Nathan
Kim, Hyun Jung
Ríos, Carlos
Gu, Tian
Hu, Juejun
author_facet He, Zhiping
Ranno, Luigi
Burns, Padraic
Yang, Fan
Lin, Hung-I
Peters, Maarten R. A.
Zheng, Hanyu
Chen, Rui
Tan, Yi Ji
Lian, Chuanyu
Dostart, Nathan
Kim, Hyun Jung
Ríos, Carlos
Gu, Tian
Hu, Juejun
contents Two-dimensional (2D) wide field-of-view (FOV) beam steering is a key enabling capability for emerging free-space optical systems, including inter-satellite optical links, airborne LiDAR, point-to-point optical wireless communications, and collaborative robotic platforms. These applications require rapid acquisition and tracking across both azimuth and elevation; architectures that offer wide scanning in only one dimension while maintaining limited coverage in the orthogonal direction constrain link availability, coverage uniformity, and system agility. Here, we demonstrate a chip-scale platform for ultrawide-angle, diffraction-limited 2D beam steering based on hybrid integration of a silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and an optical metasurface. A free-form micro-optical reflector efficiently transforms the guided waveguide mode into an expanded free-space beam that illuminates an analytically optimized ultrawide-FOV metasurface. The integrated system achieves a measured FOV exceeding 160° while maintaining diffraction-limited beam quality over a broad angular range at telecom wavelengths. This hybrid PIC-metasurface architecture provides a compact and scalable route to high-quality 2D beam steering and establishes a practical pathway toward integrated optical projectors for space-based optical communications and other applications requiring agile, wide-angle, high-fidelity beam control.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_13233
institution arXiv
publishDate 2026
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Ultrawide-angle diffraction-limited 2D beam steering via hybrid integrated metasurface-photonic circuit
He, Zhiping
Ranno, Luigi
Burns, Padraic
Yang, Fan
Lin, Hung-I
Peters, Maarten R. A.
Zheng, Hanyu
Chen, Rui
Tan, Yi Ji
Lian, Chuanyu
Dostart, Nathan
Kim, Hyun Jung
Ríos, Carlos
Gu, Tian
Hu, Juejun
Optics
Two-dimensional (2D) wide field-of-view (FOV) beam steering is a key enabling capability for emerging free-space optical systems, including inter-satellite optical links, airborne LiDAR, point-to-point optical wireless communications, and collaborative robotic platforms. These applications require rapid acquisition and tracking across both azimuth and elevation; architectures that offer wide scanning in only one dimension while maintaining limited coverage in the orthogonal direction constrain link availability, coverage uniformity, and system agility. Here, we demonstrate a chip-scale platform for ultrawide-angle, diffraction-limited 2D beam steering based on hybrid integration of a silicon photonic integrated circuit (PIC) and an optical metasurface. A free-form micro-optical reflector efficiently transforms the guided waveguide mode into an expanded free-space beam that illuminates an analytically optimized ultrawide-FOV metasurface. The integrated system achieves a measured FOV exceeding 160° while maintaining diffraction-limited beam quality over a broad angular range at telecom wavelengths. This hybrid PIC-metasurface architecture provides a compact and scalable route to high-quality 2D beam steering and establishes a practical pathway toward integrated optical projectors for space-based optical communications and other applications requiring agile, wide-angle, high-fidelity beam control.
title Ultrawide-angle diffraction-limited 2D beam steering via hybrid integrated metasurface-photonic circuit
topic Optics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.13233