Date: Apr 29, 2015 Source: photonics.com (
click here to go to the source)
Vescent Photonics SEEORA nonmechanical beam-steering device from Vescent Photonics Inc. operates at the crossroads of waveguide and liquid crystal (LC) technologies.
The SEEOR (Scannable Electro-Evanescent Optical Refractor) can continuously steer a near-infrared laser beam over a 30° × 5° field of view with a full frame rate <50 ms.
The beam is refracted by prismatic structures in an LC-based cladding to the waveguide. The electro-optic coefficient of the LC (up to 100,000 times that of LiNbO3) allows voltage tuning of the index of the prisms, and hence the refraction angle of the laser exiting the device.
Applications include ladar, free-space communications and scanned illumination.
