Continuous wide-angle beam steering using translation of binary microlens arrays and a liquid-crystal phased array

We demonstrate two-dimensional optical wide angle beam steering by incorporating two steering techniques in tandem. The first technique is translation of two microlens arrays configured as a telescope array. The microlens translation produces wide angle steering to discrete angles. The second technique is optical phased array steering using a nematic liquid crystal array, which provides access to a continuous range of angles. By translating both microlens arrays of the 10 x 10 telescope array, we demonstrate steering to maintaining a peak irradiance within 3.6 dB of the on-axis peak irradiance.