Lithium Niobate Ridge Waveguides Fabricated by Ion Implantation Followed by Ion Beam Etching

A new fabrication method for lithium niobate ridge waveguides is reported. Lithium niobate ridge waveguide with a smooth surface was fabricated by O + ions implanted combined with Ar ion beam etching. The beam propagation method (BPM) was used to simulate the properties of planar and ridge waveguides by use of a reconstructed refractive index profile. The simulation results match to the experimental results very well, and the loss value of the ridge waveguide is about 2 dB/cm.