Optical multi-beam steering and communication using integrated acousto-optics arrays

Optical beam steering enables optical detection and imaging in macroscopic or microscopic scales and long-range communication over free space. It underpins numerous optical applications, including LiDAR, biomedical imaging, and remote sensing. Despite the inherent speed of light, advanced applications increasingly require the ability to steer multiple beams simultaneously to increase imaging throughput, boost communication bandwidth, and control arrays qubits for scalable quantum computing. Therefore, there is a significant demand for non-mechanical, integrated, and scalable multi-beam steering technology. Here, we report a scalable multi-beam steering system comprising an array of acousto-optic beam steering channels and photonic integrated circuits on a thin-film lithium niobate platform. Each channel generates tens of individually controllable beams of visible wavelength by exciting acoustic waves using digitally synthesized multi-tone microwave signals. We demonstrate the system's capabilities through multi-input, multi-output free-space communications, simultaneously transmitting to multiple receivers at megabits/sec data rates. This technology can be readily scaled up to steer hundreds of optical beams from a compact chip, potentially advancing many areas of optical technologies and enabling novel applications.