On-chip wavefront shaping in spacing-varied waveguide arrays

The ability to manipulate light propagation sets the foundations for optical communication and information processing systems. With the ever-growing data capacity and data rate, photonic integrated circuits have attracted increasing attentions of researchers owing to their large-volume integration capacity and fast operation speed. In this work, we proposed and experimentally demonstrated a new wavefront shaping method using waveguide arrays with hyperbolic secant refractive index profiles. Through theoretically analyzing the diffraction and coherence properties, we found that a single waveguide array can perform both imaging and phase transformation, which are the two primary functions of optical lenses. We further expanded this function and fabricated the corresponding devices on a silicon nitride waveguide platform. Deterministic beam shaping, such as focusing, expansion, collimation, and steering, is successfully realized. This wavefront control method exhibits the potential for on-chip optical routing, ranging, sensing, etc., with high integration density and scalability.