Experimental Research On The Optical Waveguide Array Electro-optical Scanner

Optical waveguide array electro-optical scanners are of the advantage of quick,wide-angle scanning and requiring low drive voltage. According to the practical demand,theoretical and experimental characteristics of the optical waveguide arrayelectro-optical scanners are studied.Firstly, the working principle of optical waveguide array electro-optical scanner isintroduced. The relation of waveguide structure with the mode of beam in opticalwaveguide is analyzed.Secondly, a beam scanning system based on a10-element optical waveguide arrayis established. The factors which affect the characteristics of scanning light field arestudied theoretically and experimentally. The output voltage of the control circuit of thescanning system is calibrated and its error is less than0.001V.Thirdly, beam scanning experiment is conducted under two kinds ofelectric-control scheme respectively. The experiment results show that the2πelectro-control scheme can increase the beam scanning angle and reduce the beamscanning error.Finally, the influence of optical waveguide array’s electrical characteristics onscanning beam is studied. The scanning speed of the system is measured. The resultsshow that the sweep frequency is in the range of10Hz to400kHz, the sweep angle isof13.3°.