Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching technique
Lithium niobate material (LN) has shown great application potentials in the fabrication of integrated optical devices due to its excellent physical properties, especially with the occurrence of lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) substrate. However, the greatest challenge of micro/nano optical devic...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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IOP Publishing
2020-01-01
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| Series: | Materials Research Express |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab8e70 |
| _version_ | 1797746413821493248 |
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| author | Ying Li Tian Lan Dengcai Yang Meihua Xiang Jingjing Dai Chong Li Zhiyong Wang |
| author_facet | Ying Li Tian Lan Dengcai Yang Meihua Xiang Jingjing Dai Chong Li Zhiyong Wang |
| author_sort | Ying Li |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Lithium niobate material (LN) has shown great application potentials in the fabrication of integrated optical devices due to its excellent physical properties, especially with the occurrence of lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) substrate. However, the greatest challenge of micro/nano optical devices based on LN material lies in the precise etching process and thus limits its applications. In this paper, we comprehensively analyze the etching results treated by the proposed proton-exchanged wet-etching method (PEWE) combining with theoretical simulations and experiments. It is found that the proton-exchanged layer in the LN material can be easily etched after using a mixture acid of HF/HNO _3 , leading to the improvement of etching rate and surface morphology. The lowest roughness of the optical waveguide is measured to be 0.81 nm, which is beneficial for the performance improvement of LN-based optical devices. Ultimately, a quasi-vertical sidewall of the upper part of optical waveguide with improved surface morphology is successfully realized by utilizing the PEWE. Moreover, this method could also be extended to improve the performance of LNOI-based optical devices and pave the way for ultra-compact photonic integrated circuits based on LNOI. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:36:28Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-8c557d38e3d6460691af223eca5e2f60 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2053-1591 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T15:36:28Z |
| publishDate | 2020-01-01 |
| publisher | IOP Publishing |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Materials Research Express |
| spelling | doaj.art-8c557d38e3d6460691af223eca5e2f602023-08-09T16:10:53ZengIOP PublishingMaterials Research Express2053-15912020-01-017505620210.1088/2053-1591/ab8e70Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching techniqueYing Li0https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1696-7569Tian Lan1https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3549-2255Dengcai Yang2Meihua Xiang3Jingjing Dai4Chong Li5Zhiyong Wang6https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8751-9432Institute of Advanced Technology on Semiconductor Optics &Electronics, Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Advanced Technology on Semiconductor Optics &Electronics, Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Advanced Technology on Semiconductor Optics &Electronics, Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Advanced Technology on Semiconductor Optics &Electronics, Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Advanced Technology on Semiconductor Optics &Electronics, Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of ChinaCollege of Microelectronics, Beijing University of technology , Beijing 100124, People’s Republic of ChinaInstitute of Advanced Technology on Semiconductor Optics &Electronics, Institute of Laser Engineering, Beijing University of Technology , Beijing, 100124, People’s Republic of ChinaLithium niobate material (LN) has shown great application potentials in the fabrication of integrated optical devices due to its excellent physical properties, especially with the occurrence of lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) substrate. However, the greatest challenge of micro/nano optical devices based on LN material lies in the precise etching process and thus limits its applications. In this paper, we comprehensively analyze the etching results treated by the proposed proton-exchanged wet-etching method (PEWE) combining with theoretical simulations and experiments. It is found that the proton-exchanged layer in the LN material can be easily etched after using a mixture acid of HF/HNO _3 , leading to the improvement of etching rate and surface morphology. The lowest roughness of the optical waveguide is measured to be 0.81 nm, which is beneficial for the performance improvement of LN-based optical devices. Ultimately, a quasi-vertical sidewall of the upper part of optical waveguide with improved surface morphology is successfully realized by utilizing the PEWE. Moreover, this method could also be extended to improve the performance of LNOI-based optical devices and pave the way for ultra-compact photonic integrated circuits based on LNOI.https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab8e70lithium niobate (LN)optical waveguideproton exchange (PE)wet etching |
| spellingShingle | Ying Li Tian Lan Dengcai Yang Meihua Xiang Jingjing Dai Chong Li Zhiyong Wang Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching technique Materials Research Express lithium niobate (LN) optical waveguide proton exchange (PE) wet etching |
| title | Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching technique |
| title_full | Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching technique |
| title_fullStr | Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching technique |
| title_full_unstemmed | Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching technique |
| title_short | Research of selective etching in LiNbO3 using proton-exchanged wet etching technique |
| title_sort | research of selective etching in linbo3 using proton exchanged wet etching technique |
| topic | lithium niobate (LN) optical waveguide proton exchange (PE) wet etching |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1088/2053-1591/ab8e70 |
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