Abstract

A study is presented on the optical damage and photovoltaic behaviour of proton-exchanged LiNbO₃ waveguides in the α-, β₁-phases as well as reverse-exchanged guides. The intensity threshold for optical damage has respectively been found 40, 1.5·10³ and 2·10⁴ W/cm², as measured by the loss of linearity between the in- and out-coupled intensities in a single beam configuration. The photocurrent versus in-coupled intensity curve appears superlinear for α-guides and linear for β₁ and reverse guides. The initial linear stage of the curve shows photocurrent values for reverse and β₁ guides respectively five times and an order of magnitude smaller than for α-guides.

© 2003 Optical Society of America