Optimized, highly efficient silicon antennas for optical phased arrays

Abstract

Silicon photonics, in conjunction with complementary metal-oxide-semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication, has greatly enhanced the development of integrated optical phased arrays. This facilitates a dynamic control of light in a compact form factor that enables the synthesis of arbitrary complex wavefronts in the infrared spectrum. We numerically demonstrate a large-scale two-dimensional silicon-based optical phased array (OPA) composed of nanoantennas with circular gratings that are balanced in power and aligned in phase, required for producing elegant radiation patterns in the far-field. For a wavelength of 1.55 μm, we optimize two antennas for the OPA exhibiting an upward radiation efficiency as high as 90%, with almost 6.8% of optical power concentrated in the field of view. Additionally, we believe that the proposed OPAs can be easily fabricated and would have the ability to generate complex holographic images, rendering them an attractive candidate for a wide range of applications like LiDAR sensors, optical trapping, optogenetic stimulation, and augmented-reality displays.