Electrically generated optical waveguide in a lithium-niobate thin film

Opt Express. 2020 Sep 28;28(20):29895-29903. doi: 10.1364/OE.405029.

Abstract

This paper reports an electrically generated optical waveguide for the transverse-magnetic wave. The waveguide is formed in a z-cut single-crystal lithium-niobate (LN) thin film by the electro-optic effect, where the extraordinary refractive index (RI) of the LN film is increased by a voltage applied to patterned electrodes that define the waveguide geometry. Such a waveguide can be made to exist or disappear by turning on or off the applied voltage. A straight waveguide and an S-bend waveguide with an RI contrast of ∼0.004 are generated at a voltage of 200 V. The propagation loss of the generated waveguide measured at the wavelength 532 nm is 1.8 dB/cm. Electrically generated optical waveguides could fulfill useful functions in photonic integrated circuits, such as reconfigurable cross connect and switching that require wavelength-independent and mode-independent operation.