Thin-film lithium niobate has attracted great interest in high-speed communication due to its unique piezoelectric and nonlinear properties.However,its high photorefraction and slow electro-optic response relaxation i...Thin-film lithium niobate has attracted great interest in high-speed communication due to its unique piezoelectric and nonlinear properties.However,its high photorefraction and slow electro-optic response relaxation introduce the possibility of transmission bit errors.Recently,lithium tantalate,another piezoelectric and nonlinear material,has emerged as a promising candidate for active photonic integrated devices because of its weaker photorefraction,faster electro-optic response relaxation,higher optical damage threshold,wider transparency window,and lower birefringence compared with lithium niobate.Here,we developed an ultralow-loss lithium tantalate integrated photonic platform,including waveguides,grating couplers,and microring cavities.The measured highest optical Q factor of the microring cavities is beyond 10^(7),corresponding to the lowest waveguide propagation loss of~1.88 dB∕m.The photorefractive effect in such lithium tantalate microring cavities was experimentally demonstrated to be 500 times weaker than that in lithium niobate microcavities.This work lays the foundation for a lithium tantalate integrated platform for achieving a series of on-chip optically functional devices,such as periodically poled waveguides,acousto-optic modulators,and electro-optic modulators.展开更多
基金Research Grants Council of Hong Kong(C4050-21E,RFS2324-4S03,14203623)The Chinese University of Hong Kong(Group Research Scheme)。
文摘Thin-film lithium niobate has attracted great interest in high-speed communication due to its unique piezoelectric and nonlinear properties.However,its high photorefraction and slow electro-optic response relaxation introduce the possibility of transmission bit errors.Recently,lithium tantalate,another piezoelectric and nonlinear material,has emerged as a promising candidate for active photonic integrated devices because of its weaker photorefraction,faster electro-optic response relaxation,higher optical damage threshold,wider transparency window,and lower birefringence compared with lithium niobate.Here,we developed an ultralow-loss lithium tantalate integrated photonic platform,including waveguides,grating couplers,and microring cavities.The measured highest optical Q factor of the microring cavities is beyond 10^(7),corresponding to the lowest waveguide propagation loss of~1.88 dB∕m.The photorefractive effect in such lithium tantalate microring cavities was experimentally demonstrated to be 500 times weaker than that in lithium niobate microcavities.This work lays the foundation for a lithium tantalate integrated platform for achieving a series of on-chip optically functional devices,such as periodically poled waveguides,acousto-optic modulators,and electro-optic modulators.
