Wide-angle nonmechanical beam steering using liquid lenses

Nonmechanical beam steering is a rapidly growing branch of adaptive optics with applications such as light detection and ranging, imaging, optical communications, and atomic physics. Here, we present an innovative technique for one-and two-dimensional beam steering using multiple tunable liquid lenses. We use an approach in which one lens controls the spot divergence, and one to two decentered lenses act as prisms and steer the beam. Continuous 1D beam steering was demonstrated, achieving steering angles of +/- 39 degrees using two tunable liquid lenses. The beam scanning angle was further enhanced to +/- 75 degrees using a fisheye lens. By adding a third tunable liquid lens, we achieved 2D beam steering of +/- 75 degrees. In this approach, the divergence of the scanning beam is controlled at all steering angles. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America