Abstract

The use of electrooptic diffraction in a lithium niobate waveguide to deflect a laser beam efficiently, and at high speed, in response to a relatively low voltage, has been well established [1-2]. Practical applications, on the other hand, have been discouraged by the historical shortcoming of the lithium niobate: its susceptibility to laser damage. Moreover, it has proven difficult to couple a laser into, and out of, the lithium niobate waveguides, efficiently and reproducibly. Recently, we reported a chemical process for forming low-loss lithium niobate waveguides that resist optical damage, even at very high laser powers, and short laser wavelengths [3]. More recently, we developed an improved tapered-gap prism coupler, and optimized it for very efficient coupling (>80%) to our single TE mode, damage resistant lithium niobate waveguides [4-6].

© 1980 Optical Society of America