Optical Phased Array Beam Scanning Technology Using Phased Fiber Laser Array Cascaded Microlens Array Scanners

As a type of optical phased array technology, phased fiber laser array (PFLA) manipulates the phase of multiple beams to achieve high-power laser output and high-speed beam control. In this paper, a PFLA of cascaded microlens array scanners (MLAS) is proposed for the first time, and the wide-angle scanning and combining characteristics of the array light field are theoretically studied by using the multi-stage phase cooperative control theory of tip/tilt-piston phase. At the same time, using a seven-aperture array system as an example, the paper compares and analyzes the properties of using piston phase control, tip/tilt phase control, and tip/tilt-piston phase cooperative control to achieve scanning and combining beams. The results indicate that the proposed PFLA technology with cascaded MLAS can achieve continuous and stable beam scanning in a wide field of view. Moreover, this technology adopts a flexible distributed design with the characteristics of large aperture transmission and reception. In addition, each device is independent of each other, without coupling crosstalk, and the control is simple. This technology provides a solution for the integration of coherent combining and electronically controlled beam scanning, and is expected to be widely used in fields such as free-space optical communication and laser atmospheric transmission.