Feasibility of single‑pulse periodic poling for thin‑film LiTaO3

Determine whether high‑quality, reproducible periodic domain inversion in thin‑film lithium tantalate (LiTaO3) can be achieved using a single high‑voltage pulse for electric‑field poling, and, if so, identify the electrode geometries, pulse parameters, and fabrication or material‑stack conditions that enable such single‑pulse poling to yield uniform domain structures suitable for efficient second‑harmonic generation.

Background

The authors initially attempted to pole thin-film LiTaO3 using a single high-voltage pulse, inspired by approaches commonly employed for LiNbO3. Across multiple electrode geometries and pulse shapes, they did not obtain uniform or reproducible domain inversion; the resulting domains appeared chaotic and devices exhibited low and variable SHG efficiency.

They note that the parameter space is large and speculate that different electrodes or process conditions could improve outcomes, leaving open whether a viable single‑pulse strategy exists for thin‑film LiTaO3 and what parameters would be required.

References

Our initial attempts to perform periodic poling of LiTaO$_3$ were based on using single pulses for domain inversion, similar to methods typically used for LiNbO$_3$. However, we could not find an optimal strategy for achieving high-quality poling with this technique. None of the electrode shapes or high-voltage pulse shapes we tested resulted in high-quality, reproducible domain inversion.

— Watt-level second harmonic generation in periodically poled thin-film lithium tantalate (2512.07968 - Kuznetsov et al., 8 Dec 2025) in Section: Single-pulse periodic poling of thin-film lithium tantalate (around Fig. S4)