Picosecond Wide-Angle Dynamic Beam Steering for Object Tracking

Beam steering plays a vital role in light detection and ranging (LiDAR). However, the scanning speed is below megahertz (MHz) in current LiDAR systems. Frequency-gradient metasurface has been reported to achieve gigahertz (GHz) beam steering with 25 degrees scanning angle in two dimensions. However, the fabrication of millions of form-varying nanoscale meta-atoms poses challenges in operation efficiency, massive production, and overall cost-effectiveness when the size goes beyond millimeter scale. Here, a dynamic beam steering comprising periodic grating nanostructures fabricated through nanoimprint lithography with an ultrafast scanning rate up to GHz (approximate to 81 ps) and ultra-wide three-dimensional (3D) fields of view up to 53 degrees x 23 degrees is reported, which shows the powerful acquisition of 3D space data. The detection distance of object reaches to approximate to 230 m. This work demonstrates a wide-angle and high-speed beam steering, and paves a robust way to realize cost-efficient, high-volume manufacturing, and powerful 3D all-solid-state LiDAR for next-generation intelligent vision and self-driving technologies.

Automated summary

This article reports a dynamic beam steering system with periodic grating nanostructures fabricated through nanoimprint lithography, achieving high-frequency, wide field of view control of light beams for efficient 3D space data acquisition, suitable for next-generation intelligent vision and self-driving technologies.