Perimeter-Control Architecture for Optical Phased Arrays and Metasurfaces

Abstract

Tunable optical phased arrays and metasurfaces play an important role in a diverse range of applications from imaging and remote sensing to communications and displays. However, as the number of tunable elements grows, the required control architecture becomes insurmountably complex. Here, we discuss the concept of perimeter-controlled tuning to shape far-zone radiation. We discuss applications of our approach to beam forming, holography, and image projection. We show that, with a proper design, the complexity of a control architecture may be dramatically simplified. We further discuss the use of our method to time-sharing image projection and holography. Our concept is applicable to a variety of systems, including phased array optical antennas and metasurfaces.