Growth and characterization of lithium niobate planar waveguides by liquid phase epitaxy

Single crystal thin films of Yb, Zn:LiNbO3LiNbO3 have been grown on LiNbO3LiNbO3 substrates using liquid phase epitaxy with K2OK2O flux. The segregation coefficients decrease abruptly at high doping concentrations, indicating a doping threshold. The surface roughness of the thin film increased with doping concentration. The propagation loss of the as-grown lithium niobate thin film sample was 0.154±0.002dB/mm at a wavelength of 1μm measured by the cutback method.