Waveguides in lithium niobate

Journal Article · Tue Aug 01 00:00:00 EDT 1989 · Journal of the American Ceramic Society; (USA)

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1151-2916.1989.tb07644.x· OSTI ID:5246866

Abovelleil, M M; Leonberger, F J ^[1]

---

1. United Technologies Research Center, East Hartford, CT (USA)

Lithium niobate (LiNbO/sub 3/) is considered to be the leading electrooptical material for fabrication of active waveguides, modulators, and switches for application in integrated optical circuits. LiNbO/sub 3/ is a ferroelectric material with a high Curie temperature of 1210{sup 0}C. This is essential to permit rapid diffusion at high temperature, e.g., >1000{sup 0}C, without domain reversal. Its high electrooptic coefficient allows modulation at relatively low voltages. Waveguides are fabricated in LiNbO/sub 3/ by Ti in diffusion around 1000{sup 0}C, by Li/sub 2/O out-diffusion, and more recently, by Li/sup +//H/sup +/ ion exchange. The authors report results of a study on diluted Li/sup +//H/sup +/ ion exchange. This process is attractive because it allows control of the index change between 0.003 and 0.1. Furthermore, the fabricated waveguides are polarization selective, have high optical damage resistance, and do not exhibit index instability as is the case with complete Li/sup +//H/sup +/ exchange. The variation in both the index of refraction and the diffusion coefficient with composition is very nonlinear. Mechanisms contributing to these nonlinear properties are discussed.

• OSTI ID: 5246866
• Journal Information: Journal of the American Ceramic Society; (USA), Vol. 72:8; ISSN 0002-7820
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

36 MATERIALS SCIENCE
47 OTHER INSTRUMENTATION
LITHIUM OXIDES
ELECTRO-OPTICAL EFFECTS
NIOBIUM OXIDES
WAVEGUIDES
FABRICATION
DIFFUSION
HIGH TEMPERATURE
INTEGRATED CIRCUITS
ION EXCHANGE
NIOBATES
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
OPTICAL SYSTEMS
POLARIZATION
TITANIUM
ALKALI METAL COMPOUNDS
CHALCOGENIDES
ELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
ELEMENTS
LITHIUM COMPOUNDS
METALS
MICROELECTRONIC CIRCUITS
NIOBIUM COMPOUNDS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
REFRACTORY METAL COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENT COMPOUNDS
TRANSITION ELEMENTS
360204* - Ceramics
Cermets
& Refractories- Physical Properties
360201 - Ceramics
Cermets
& Refractories- Preparation & Fabrication
440600 - Optical Instrumentation- (1990-)