Proceedings Article | 5 October 2011
Proc. SPIE. 8184, Unmanned/Unattended Sensors and Sensor Networks VIII
KEYWORDS: Optical fibers, Point spread functions, Beam steering, Microlens array, Mode locking, Modulators, Beam shaping, Optical arrays, Phased array optics, Channel projecting optics
Beam steering is an enabling technology for establishment of ad hoc communication links, directed energy for infrared
countermeasures, and other in-theater defense applications. The development of nonmechanical beam steering
techniques is driven by requirements for low size, weight, and power, and high slew rate, among others. The
predominant beam steering technology currently in use relies on gimbal mounts, which are relatively large, heavy, and
slow, and furthermore create drag on the airframes to which they are mounted. Nonmechanical techniques for beam
steering are currently being introduced or refined, such as those based on liquid crystal spatial light modulators;
however, drawbacks inherent to some of these approaches include narrow field of regard, low speed operation, and low
optical efficiency. An attractive method that we explore is based on optical phased arrays, which has the potential to
overcome the aforementioned issues associated with other mechanical and nonmechanical beam steering techniques.
The optical array phase locks a number of coherent optical emitters in addition to applying arbitrary phase profiles
across the array, thereby synthesizing beam shapes that can be steered and utilized for a diverse range of applications.
