Lithium niobate waveguides with high-index contrast and preserved nonlinearity fabricated by High Vacuum Vapor-phase Proton Exchange

Abstract: Highly confining waveguides without degraded nonlinear coefficient and low propagation losses have been fabricated in lithium niobate by a new process that we called High Vacuum Vapor-phase Proton Exchange (HiVac-VPE). Index contrast, index profile, nonlinearity and crystallographic phases are carefully investigated. Original analysis of index profiles indicates that the waveguides contains sub-layers whose depths are depending on the exchange durations. Propagation behavior, propagation losses and Second Harmonic Generation (SHG) response of HiVac-VPE channel waveguides are investigated at telecom wavelength. The results recommend HiVac-VPE as very promising technique for fabricating efficient nonlinear photonic integrated circuits in LN crystals.