Simple production of membrane-based LiNbO 3 micro-modulators with integrated tapers
Résumé
We report on free-standing electro-optical LiNbO3 waveguides
with integrated tapers made by optical grade dicing.
Membranes with a calibrated thickness are produced
simultaneously with tapers acting as spot-size converters.
Thereby, thicknesses from 450 to 500 μm can simply be
achieved together with integrated tapers guaranteeing low
insertion losses. These developments open the way to the
low-cost production of compact and low-power-consuming
electro-optical components. As an example, a 200 μm-long
free-standing electro-optical Fabry–Perot is demonstrated
with a figure of merit of only 0.19 V·cm in a 4.5 μm-thick
membrane.