Nonuniform and off-axis structures for photorefractive waveguides in lithium niobate

Osamu Matoba; Kazuyoshi Itoh; Yoshiki Ichioka

doi:10.1117/1.600823

1 August 1996 Nonuniform and off-axis structures for photorefractive waveguides in lithium niobate

Osamu Matoba, Kazuyoshi Itoh, Yoshiki Ichioka

Optical Engineering, Vol. 35, Issue 8, (August 1996). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.600823

Photorefractive waveguides that are optically modifiable can be used as the adaptive interconnection channels for optical neural networks. We investigate experimentally a refined fabrication method for the photorefractive waveguides in a lithium niobate crystal. The experimental results show that nonuniform illumination by a discontinuous movement of the focus can fabricate a better optical waveguide than uniform illumination by a continuous one. The discontinuous movement of the focus reduces the spatial overlap between the successive exposures, and avoids the redistribution of the space-charge density formed previously. This refinement results in a narrower and clearer index distribution of the waveguide. We further show that good waveguides are fabricated if the focus is scanned in a particular scanning direction that makes a small angle with the plane perpendicular to the c axis of the crystal.

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Osamu Matoba, Kazuyoshi Itoh, and Yoshiki Ichioka "Nonuniform and off-axis structures for photorefractive waveguides in lithium niobate," Optical Engineering 35(8), (1 August 1996). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.600823

Published: 1 August 1996

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