On-chip LIDAR with inverse design

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LIDAR can provide detailed spatial maps of an environment, a capability that is essential for applica- tions such as autonomous driving, robotics, building modeling, or augmented reality. Bulky optical elements and moving parts in current LIDAR systems have unfortunately made these systems heavy, expensive, and vibration-sensitive. Solid-state optical devices for the functionalities required for a LIDAR system have therefore driven much integrated photonics research in recent years. For on-chip beam-steering, optical phased arrays (OPAs) have emerged as a promising solution; however, the size and efficiency specifications for an effective LIDAR-OPA design have remained challenging for classical photonics design methods. In this talk, I will present how photonic inverse design methods can improve OPA design. Unlike classical photonic design, inverse design allows for arbitrary device geometries through the use of advanced elec- tromagnetic optimization methods. The extra degrees of freedom these methods provide has resulted in numerous new photonic devices with improved efficiency, reduced on-chip footprint or novel functionali- ties. Leveraging these new capabilities, we demonstrate an OPA design with a larger scanning cone and a smaller operating bandwidth as compared to the classical photonic design solutions.