Optical and structural properties of single-crystal lithium niobate thin film

• The refractive index of the LNOI can restore to that of bulk material by annealing.
• A small FWHM of thin film XRD showed an excellent crystal-lattice arrangement.
• The RBS spectrum shows the thin film has few damaged layers at the surface.
• The photonic wire shows the application of LNOI on integrated optics.

High-refractive-index contrast, single-crystal lithium niobate thin films are emerging as a new platform for integrated optics. Such lithium niobate thin films are prepared using ion implantation and direct-wafer bonding to a SiO2 layer deposited on a LN substrate. However, the ion-implantation process can cause changes in the refractive index and result in lattice damage, and there are few studies on the optical and structural properties of lithium niobate thin film to compensate for this. In this paper, we reported that the refractive index of lithium niobate thin film can reach that of the bulk material by annealing in an oxygen atmosphere at 500 °C for 5 h. The experimental results of high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and Rutherford back-scattering spectrum (RBS) showed a good crystal lattice arrangement in the LN thin film. These experimental results confirmed that the refractive index and crystal-lattice structural properties of the lithium niobate thin film were similar to that of the bulk material. To demonstrate the application on integrated optics, a 1 μm wide photonic wire was fabricated and the near-field intensity profile at 1.55 μm wavelength was obtained and compared with the simulation result.