Sub-Micron Structuring of LiNbO3 Crystals with Multi-Period and Complex Geometries

Lithium niobate (LN) is a ferroelectric material which has attracted a considerable interest in different fields, such as the optical and the laser and communications industry, due to its excellent nonlinear optical, electro-optic, piezoelectric and acousto-optical coefficients. LN is widely used in the laser area, where fabrication of periodically poled materials has achieved high efficiencies in quasi-phased matched nonlinear interactions, but also in the field of microwave communications for surface acoustic wave delay lines. Recently, the possibility to microstructure LN crystals has been attracted great interest for the useful applications foreseen in the fields of optics and optoelectronics.