Characterization of erbium doped lithium niobate crystals and waveguides

Optical planar waveguides have been fabricated by the titanium in-diffusion process in lithium niobate crystals activated with erbium ions. The waveguides were studied by m-line technique in order to recover the index profile. The effect of the Ti in-diffusion on the structural and spectroscopic properties of the lithium niobate crystals was investigated by Raman and photoluminescence spectroscopies. The presence of titanium has only minor effects on the vibrational properties of the crystal, and no change in the emission properties of the erbium ions is observed.