Evanescent field-modulated non-uniform optical phased array with large lateral steering angle

The evanescent field-modulated grating can extend the effective transmission length by periodically loading radiating elements on both sides of the waveguide. However, the radiating elements, which are separated from the waveguide, lead to a significant increase in the antenna's physical size, limiting the spacing between adjacent antennas and thus restricting the field of view (FOV). To address this issue, we propose combining an evanescent field-modulated grating with the non-uniform sparse array. This design achieves a steering range of 120°×7.18° and a beam width of 1.33°×0.081°, while maintaining a large average center spacing to accommodate evanescent field-modulated grating. This work presents a promising approach to realizing an optical phased array (OPA) with a wide FOV and a narrow divergence angle.