Hamburg 2009 – scientific programme
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Q: Fachverband Quantenoptik und Photonik
Q 29: Poster I
Q 29.27: Poster
Tuesday, March 3, 2009, 16:30–19:00, VMP 8 Foyer
Optical waveguide devices and electro optic modulation in ultrashort-pulse laser written lithium niobate crystals — •Stefan Ringleb1, Katja Rademaker1, Stefan Nolte1, and Andreas Tünnermann1,2 — 1Institut für Angewandte Physik, Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena, Max-Wien-Platz 1, 07743 Jena — 2Fraunhofer Institut für Angewandte Optik und Feinmechanik IOF, Albert-Einstein-Straße 7, 07745 Jena
Lithium niobate (LiNbO3) is a key material in integrated optics due to its large electro optic and nonlinear coefficients as well as its availability in good optical quality. Commonly, the fabrication of integrated optical devices like optical switches and modulators is done by microfabrication techniques involving lithography. In this presentation, we will describe the fabrication of three dimensional functional elements in a bulk LiNbO3 crystal by using ultrashort-pulse laser writing. Here, an ultrashort laser pulse is focussed inside the bulk material, which results in a refractive index increase due to stress-induced birefringence. In this way, integrated optical devices can be fabricated in a couple of minutes and with just a few process steps. As an example, an electro optic modulator will be presented, where the waveguiding Mach-Zehnder-Interferometer structures are prepared by the technique mentioned above including the electrodes using laser ablation. Switching voltages of 23 V at a wavelength of 532 nm and modulation depths up to 11 dB are achieved.