Optical fabrication of wavy lattices and photonic lattices with defects in photorefractive crystal by single step projection method

•We fabricate wavy microstructures in LiNbO3:Fe crystal for the first time.•Photonic lattices with different defects are one-step induced inside the crystal.•The experimental method is very flexible and easy to operate.•The method makes up for the deficiency of the multi-beam interference method.•Induced photonic structures can be fixed, erased or re-recorded in the crystal.

We fabricate several different photonic lattice microstructures in iron-doped lithium niobate photorefractive crystal using single step projection method by a spatial light modulator. Wavy photonic lattice and several lattice structures with different defects were one-step induced inside the crystal. This method makes up the weakness of the conventional multiple beams interference method. The experimental setup is very flexible and easy to operate without complicated programming. Induced photonic structures can be fixed or erased and re-recorded in the crystal. The method can be easily extended to fabricate diverse photonic microstructures by drawing different structural patterns on a computer.