LiNbO3 - A Practical Optoelectronic Waveguide Technology?

Abstract

LiNbO3 electro-optic waveguide technology and associated devices have now been studied for over 15 years. Initially the use of these components was limited to a few specific applications such as optical modulators and simple switches [1]. With the widespread implementation of monomode optical fibre telecommunication and sensor systems however there has been an increased demand for a wide range of optical components such as filters, polarisation controllers, frequency translators etc [2]. Many of these functions have now been implemented in the laboratory using LiNbO3 electro-optic waveguide technology and there is currently a growing commercial interest in developing this technology to produce a wide range of active optical waveguide devices.