Lumotive, LLC

Other

Ross D Uthoff

Gleb M Akselrod

Matthieu Saracco

Apurva Jain

Prasad Padmanabha Iyer

According to various embodiments, a solid-state light detection and ranging (LiDAR) transmitter includes a tunable optical metasurface to selectively steer incident optical radiation long an azimuth axis. In some embodiments, different subsets of lasers in an array of lasers are activated to generate optical radiation for incidence on the metasurface at different angles of incidence on an elevation axis for unsteered deflection by the metasurface at corresponding angles of elevation. In some embodiments, a prism is positioned relative to the tunable optical metasurface to deflect the optical radiation from the optical assembly by the optical radiation source for incidence on the metasurface at an angle of incidence that is between the first steering angle and the second steering angle, such that the optical radiation incident on the metasurface and the steered output optical radiation from the metasurface spatially overlap within the prism.

Segmented illumination and polarization devices for tunable optical metasurfaces

Coupling prisms for tunable optical metasurfaces

An example optical transceiver system, such as a solid-state light detection and ranging (lidar) system, includes a tunable, optically reflective metasurface to selectively reflect incident optical radiation as transmit scan lines at transmit steering angles between a first steering angle and a second steering angle. In some embodiments, a feedback element, such as a volume Bragg grating element, may lock a laser to narrow the band of optical radiation. A receiver may include a tunable, optically reflective metasurface for receiver line-scanning or a two-dimensional array of detector elements forming a set of discrete receive scan lines. In embodiments incorporating a two-dimensional array of detector elements, receiver optics may direct optical radiation incident at each of a plurality of discrete receive steering angles to a unique subset of the discrete receive scan lines of detector elements.

Lidar systems based on tunable optical metasurfaces

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Seattle, WA, United States of America

Ross D Uthoff