Abstract

Non-mechanical multidirectional and wide-angle beam-steering devices are of high interest in advanced laser scanning applications. We present a non-mechanical multidirectional beam-steering device utilizing fringing fields in the liquid crystals. An electrically tunable gradient refractive index (GRIN) region is created due to the fringing fields. The direction of GRIN and the steered beam is controlled by modulating the applied voltage across the designed four-electrode system. The presented device demonstrates a continuously varying steering angle up to ${{\pm 3}}^{\circ}$ at a low applied voltage of ${{\pm 10}}\;{{\rm{V}}_{{\rm pp}}}$. Moreover, the device is compact, cost-effective, and easy to fabricate, and delivers beam steering in eight different directions.

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