Beam steering with a nonlinear optical phased array antenna

Transition metal dichalcogenides (TMDCs) exhibit high second harmonic (SH) generation in the visible due to their noncentrosymmetric crystal structure in odd-layered form and direct bandgap transition when thinned down to a monolayer. In order to emit the SH radiation into a desired direction, one requires a means to control the phase of the in-plane nonlinear polarization. Here, we couple the SH response of a monolayer MoS2 to an optical phased array antenna and demonstrate controllable steering of the nonlinear emission. By exploiting the intrinsic SH generation by the phased array antenna we achieve uniform emission efficiency into a broad angular range. Our work has relevance for novel optoelectronic applications, such as programmable optical interconnects and on-chip LIDAR.