Optical waveguides in LiNbO3 and stoichiometric LiNbO3 crystals by proton exchange

The formation of optical planar waveguides in LiNbO3 and stoichiometric LiNbO3 crystals by proton exchange was reported. The prism-coupling method was used to characterize the dark-line spectroscopy at the wavelength of 633 and 1539 nm, respectively. The mode optical near-field outputs from proton-exchanged LiNbO3 and SLN waveguides at 633 nm were presented. The mode field from stoichiometric LiNbO3 (SLN) waveguide is lighter and more uniform than that from LiNbO3 waveguide, which means the quality of the waveguide in SLN crystal is better than that of the LiNbO3 waveguide. For proton-exchanged LiNbO3 waveguides, the evolution of the refractive index profile with annealing was presented. The disorder profiles of Nb atoms in proton-exchanged LiNbO3 waveguides were obtained by Rutherford backscattering/channeling technique. It is shown that the longer the exchange time, the larger the displacement of Nb atoms.