Abstract

The processing of Ti-indiffused lithium niobate devices is not unlike the processing of semiconductor devices.¹ The procedure involved to fabricate a waveguide in lithium niobate include: deposition of a blanket film of Ti, coating with resist, exposure through a mask, development of the resist, etching of the Ti and finally diffusion in a controlled atmosphere. The steps of delineating the waveguide features is time-consuming and is usually gated by the mask. This is especially true when the active area of research is usually the geometry of the guides themselves, i.e., the branching angles, radius of curvature, distance between guides, etc. A method using laser microfabrication techniques^2,3 which eliminates many of these processing steps and makes possible the rapid design and fabrication of waveguide structures in LiNbO₃ has been developed.

© 1988 Optical Society of America