Femtosecond Laser Inscription of Low Insertion Loss Waveguides in Z-Cut Lithium Niobate

Author

Bookey, Henry T. ; Thomson, Robert R. ; Psaila, Nicholas D. ; Kar, Ajoy K. ; Chiodo, Nicola ; Osellame, Roberto ; Cerullo, Giulio

Author_Institution

Sch. of Eng. & Phys. Sci., Heriot-Watt Univ., Edinburgh

Volume

19

Issue

12

fYear

2007

fDate

6/15/2007 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

892

Lastpage

894

Abstract

A low insertion loss waveguide is fabricated in z-cut lithium niobate using femtosecond laser waveguide inscription. To fabricate a waveguide exhibiting both low propagation and coupling losses, we used the multiscan fabrication technique to control the size of the waveguide cross section. A minimum insertion loss of only 3.5 dB at 1550 nm was measured for the 18-mm-long waveguide when directly coupled to Corning SMF-28 fibers. Of this 3.5dB, we attribute 2.1 dB to coupling losses, 1.1 dB to propagation losses, and 0.3 dB to Fresnel reflections

Keywords

high-speed optical techniques; laser materials processing; lithium compounds; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical materials; optical waveguides; 0.3 dB; 1.1 dB; 1550 nm; 18 mm; 2.1 dB; 3.5 dB; Corning SMF-28 fiber; Fresnel reflection; LiNbO₃; coupling loss; femtosecond laser inscription; lithium niobate; low-insertion loss waveguides; multiscan fabrication; propagation loss; Fiber nonlinear optics; Insertion loss; Lithium niobate; Nonlinear optics; Optical device fabrication; Optical waveguides; Propagation losses; Ultrafast optics; Waveguide lasers; Writing; Buried optical waveguides; femtosecond laser writing; lithium niobate (LN); optical device fabrication;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/LPT.2007.897534

Filename

4202632