2Photonic crystal structures in ion-sliced lithium niobate thin films.pdfVIP

Photonic crystal structures in ion-sliced lithium niobate thin ?lms ¨ Frederik Sulser, Gorazd Poberaj, Manuel Koechlin, and Peter Gunter Nonlinear Optics Laboratory, Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, 8093 Zurich, Switzerland nlo@phys.ethz.ch Abstract: We report on the ?rst realization of photonic crystal structures in 600-nm thick ion-sliced, single-crystalline lithium niobate thin ?lms bonded on a lithium niobate substrate using adhesive polymer benzocyclobutene BCB . Focused ion beam FIB milling is used for fast prototyping of photonic crystal structures with regular cylindrical holes. Unwanted redeposition effects leading to conically shaped holes in lithium niobate are minimized due to the soft BCB layer underneath. A high refractive index contrast of 0.65 between the lithium niobate thin ?lm and the BCB underlayer enables strong light con?nement in the vertical direction. For TE polarized light a triangular photonic crystal lattice of air holes with a diameter of 240 nm and a separation of 500 nm has a photonic bandgap in the wavelength range from 1390 to 1500 nm. Experimentally measured transmission spectra show a spectral power dip for the ΓK direction of the reciprocal lattice with an extinction ratio of up to 15 dB. This is in good agreement with numerical simulations based on the three-dimensional plane wave expansion PWE and the ?nite-difference time-domain FDTD method. ? 2009 Optical Society of America OCIS codes: 130.3730 Lithium niobate; 160.5298 Photonic crystals; 250.5300 Photonic integrated circuits; 310.6845 Thin ?lm devices and applications. References and links 1. J.D. Joannopoulos, S.G. Johnson, J.N. Winn, R.D. Meade, “Photonic Crystals: Molding the Flow of Light,” Princeton University Press 2nd Edition 2008 . 2. Y. Akahane, T. Asano, B. S. Song, S. Noda, “High-Q photonic nanocavity in a two-dimensional photonic crystal,” Nature 425, 944-