Lateral-field-excitation properties of LiNbO3 single crystal

LiNbO 3 has been found attractive for lateral field excitation (LFE) applications due to its high piezoelectric coupling. In this paper, bulk acoustic wave propagation properties for LiNbO 3 single crystal excited by a lateral electric field have been investigated using the extended Christoffel-Bechmann method. It is found that the LFE piezoelectric coupling factor for c mode reaches its maximum value of 95.46% when ψ = 0 for both (yxl)-58 and (yxwl)±60 /58 LiNbO 3 . The acoustic wave phase velocity of c mode TSM (thickness shear mode) changes from 3456 m/s to 3983 m/s as a function of ψ. Here ψ represents the angle between the lateral electric field and the crystallographic X-axis in the substrate major surface. A 5 MHz LFE device of (yxl)-58 LiNbO 3 with ψ = 0 was designed and tested in air. A major resonance peak was observed with the motional resistance as low as 17 and the Q-factor value up to 10353. The test result is well in agreement with the theoretical analysis, and suggests that the LFE LiNbO 3 device can be a good platform for high performance resonator or sensor applications.     

Interaction of light with acoustic waves excited by an inphase multielement transducer in the 1.0–2.5 GHz range

Interaction between a weakly divergent optical beam and an acoustic wave generated in the range 1.0–2.5 GHz by an inphase multielement electroacoustic piezoelectric transducer is analyzed. A piezoelectric (Y + 36°)-cut LiNbO₃ plate is fixed on the surface of an X-cut LiNbO₃ acoustic duct with the help of metallic sublayers (Cr, Cu, In, Cu, or Cr). The inphase structure of the transducer is formed by the upper electrodes inter-connected by short conductors. The signal is applied through a coaxial Chebyshev transformer. The efficiencies of electroacoustic conversion and acoustooptic interaction are calculated as functions of frequency. The experimental setup, method, and results are described.     

Double-layer PVDF transducer and V(z) measurement system for measuring leaky Lamb waves in a piezoelectric plate

This paper presents a new experimental measurement method for leaky Lamb waves propagating in a piezoelectric plate immersed in a conductive fluid. The measurement system is a low-frequency version of lens-less acoustic microscopy which has been developed based on a line-focus double-layer PVDF transducer. The transducer and its defocusing measurement system can perform V(z) measurements on a sample plate immersed in a fluid, and therefore can obtain the leaky Lamb wave velocities with high accuracy. An X-cut LiNbO₃ plate is investigated with this experimental measurement system to find out its fluid-loading effects, especially the conductive loading effects by water of various conductivities. Angular dependence of this conductive loading effect along different propagating directions on the X-cut LiNbO₃ plate is measured. It is found out the conductive loading effects are strongly dependent on the piezoelectric coupling factor. Theoretical calculations based on partial wave theory have also been carried out and compared with experimental data. Good agreements have been observed.     

Ultrasonic engine based on traveling waves in a plate

Velocity dispersion curves and phase relationships between the surface displacement components are calculated in the case of waves propagating in XZ-, YZ-, and ZY-cut LiNbO₃ plates. The dispersion curves agree with experimental frequency dependences of the excitation efficiency for various modes in the plates. The displacements of ZnS microparticles placed on the surface of the plates qualitatively agree with the analytical phase relationships between the displacement components. Results obtained indicate that the plate may be used as an ultrasonic engine capable of transferring microparticles in various physical and industrial processes.     

The design of thin-plating surface acoustical waveguide in acousto-optic tunable filters

A ZnO thin-plating surface acoustical waveguide (SAWG) has a strong confinement, excellent filter characteristics and provides design flexibility and simple fabrication technique. It can suppress sidelobes effectively. These are very interesting in the design of acousto-optic tunable filter (AOTF). In this paper we present a numerical method for the design of ZnO film-loaded SAWG on X-cut Y-propagating LiNbO₃. The result agrees with the experiment.     

Leakage in LiNbO3 channel H-waveguides

Attenuation of leaky modes in LiNbO₃ channel H-waveguides is studied theoretically. It is shown that leakage significantly affects the parameters of waveguides made of X-and Y-cut crystals. An approximate expression for attenuation coefficients is obtained from the solution to the scalar eigenvalue problem.     

Investigation of quasi lateral-field-excitation on (yxl)-17° LiNbO3 single crystal

Quasi lateral-field-excitation (LFE) on LiNbO₃ crystal is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. It is found that when the driving electric field direction is parallel to the crystallographic X-axis of the piezoelectric substrate, (yxl)-17° LiNbO₃ LFE bulk acoustic wave devices work on quasi-LFE mode. The experimental results agreed with the theoretical prediction well. The results provide the cut of LiNbO₃ crystal for quasi-LFE bulk acoustic wave devices, which is important for designing high performance LFE sensors on LiNbO₃ substrates.     

Surface and quasi-longitudinal acoustic waves in KTiOAsO4 single crystals

Surface and quasi-longitudinal acoustic wave properties have been investigated in potassium titanyl arsenate (KTiOAsO₄, KTA) single crystals for the first time. Surface acoustic wave (SAW) velocity, electromechanical coupling coefficient and power flow angle characteristics have been obtained in rotated Y-cut of KTA crystals. High SAW electromechanical coupling coefficient (0.4%) is found in Z-cut of KTA crystals. For high-frequency devices it is promising the resonators on quasi-longitudinal acoustic wave in X-cut of KTA crystals with sharp response in interdigital transducer conductance at resonance frequency.     

Full-wave modeling of piezoelectric transducers for SAW acousto-optical interactions

In this paper we present an accurate and efficient numerical method for a rigorous full-wave analysis of interdigital transducers (IDT) for the excitation of surface acoustic waves on the piezoelectric substrate of acousto-optical devices. The problem is formulated in terms of an integral equation that is solved by the method of moments. The transducer input admittance and the power coupling factors to both surface and bulk waves are computed. Numerical results for some configurations of X-Y LiNbO₃ IDT for acousto-optic applications are in very good agreement with measured data. It is pointed out that bulk wave excitation may be a serious limitation in the design of efficient, wide band transducers for acousto-optical devices.     

Influence of vapor transport equilibration on Raman spectra of Er:LiNbO3 crystals

Raman spectra of as-grown and vapor transport equilibration (VTE) treated Er:LiNbO₃ crystals, which have different cut orientations (X-cut and Z-cut), different Er-doping levels (Er:(0.2, 0.4 and 2.0 mol%)LiNbO₃) and different VTE durations (80, 120, 150 and 180 h), were recorded at room temperature in the wavenumber range 50-1000 cm⁻¹ by using backward scattering geometry. The spectra were attributed on the basis of their spectral features and the previous experimental work and the most recent theoretical progress in lattice dynamics on pure LiNbO₃. In comparison with the pure crystal the most remarkable effect of Er-doping on the Raman spectrum is observed for the E(TO₉) mode. It does not appear at 610 cm⁻¹ as the pure crystal, but locates at 633 cm⁻¹. In addition, the doping also results in the lowering of the Raman phonon frequency, the broadening of the Raman linewidth and the changes of the relative Raman intensity of some peaks. The VTE treatment results in the narrowing of the linewidth, the recovery of the lowered phonon frequency and the further changes of relative Raman intensity. The narrowing of Raman linewidth indicates that the VTE processing has brought these crystals closer to stoichiometric composition. The VTE treatment has induced the formation of a precipitate ErNbO₄ in the high-doped Er(2.0%):LiNbO₃ crystals whether X- or Z-cut. For these precipitated crystals, besides above linewidth and phonon frequency features, they also display more significant Raman intensity changes compared with those not precipitated crystals. In addition, a slight mixing between A₁(TO) and E(TO) spectra is also observed for these precipitated crystals. Above doping and VTE effects on Raman spectra were quantitatively or qualitatively correlated with the characteristics of the crystal structure and phonon vibrational system.     

A novel Y-branch waveguide for power dividing and mode splitting

A novel Y-branch waveguide for variable-ratio power dividing and transverse electrical-transverse magnetic (TE-TM) mode splitting depending on the applied voltage is presented. The Y-branch waveguide is formed by two closely coupled waveguides tabricated by nickel indiffusion (NI) and by magnesium-oxide induced lithium outdiffusion (MILO) in a y-cut lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) substrate. The TE component of the randomly polarized light is tuned between these two waveguides, such that the device can be either a power divider or a mode splitter depending on the applied voltage. The measured TE mode extinction ratio is about 20 dB.     

Electro-optic modulation analysis of a Y-cut Z-propagation LiNbO3 light modulator: Comparison with an X-cut Z-propagation LiNbO3 light modulator and a dual LiNbO3 crystal type modulator

We analyzed dependence of modulation characteristics on manufacturing errors for a Y-cut Z-propagation (YZ) and an X-cut Z-propagation (XZ) LiNbO₃ (LN) crystal light modulators. We investigated that the modulation of the YZ modulator is hardly affected by small rotation error of Z-axis, while the XZ modulator suffers significant influence. We also analyzed temperature characteristics of modulation of conventional temperature-compensation LN light modulator. These numerical results show that the modulated signal change of the YZ modulator due to temperature variance is not more than 2.5% of that of the temperature-compensation modulator, in the presence of applied electric field of integral times of the half-wave voltage, modulated signal of the YZ modulator is almost independent on the temperature.     

Optical waveguides in LiNbO<Subscript>3</Subscript> and stoichiometric LiNbO<Subscript>3</Subscript> crystals by proton exchange

The formation of optical planar waveguides in LiNbO₃ and stoichiometric LiNbO₃ crystals by proton exchange was reported. The prism-coupling method was used to characterize the dark-line spectroscopy at the wavelength of 633 and 1539 nm, respectively. The mode optical near-field outputs from proton-exchanged LiNbO₃ and SLN waveguides at 633 nm were presented. The mode field from stoichiometric LiNbO₃ (SLN) waveguide is lighter and more uniform than that from LiNbO₃ waveguide, which means the quality of the waveguide in SLN crystal is better than that of the LiNbO₃ waveguide. For proton-exchanged LiNbO₃ waveguides, the evolution of the refractive index profile with annealing was presented. The disorder profiles of Nb atoms in proton-exchanged LiNbO₃ waveguides were obtained by Rutherford backscattering/channeling technique. It is shown that the longer the exchange time, the larger the displacement of Nb atoms. Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 10475052) and the Scientific Research Start-up Financing of Qufu Normal University     

Surface acoustic wave device properties of (B, Al)N films on 128° Y-X LiNbO3 substrate

A c-axis orientated aluminium nitride (AlN) film on a 128° Y-X lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) surface acoustic wave (SAW) device which exhibit a large electromechanical coupling coefficient (k²) and a high SAW velocity property, is needed for future communication applications. In this study, a c-axis orientated (B, Al)N film (with 2.6 at.% boron) was deposited on a 128° Y-X LiNbO₃ substrate by a co-sputtering system to further boost SAW device properties. The XRD and TEM results show that the (B, Al)N films show highly aligned columns with the c-axis perpendicular to the substrate. The hardness and Young's modulus of (B, Al)N film on 128° Y-X LiNbO₃ substrates are at least 17% and 7% larger than AlN films, respectively. From the SAW device measurement, the operation frequency characteristic of (B, Al)N film on 128° Y-X LiNbO₃ is higher than pure AlN on it. The SAW velocity also increases as (B, Al)N film thickness increases (at fixed IDT wavelength). Furthermore, the k² of (B, Al)N on the IDT/128° Y-X LiNbO₃ SAW device shows a higher value than AlN on it.     

Experimental study of acoustooptical interaction in lithium niobate in the frequency range from 7.5 to 10.5 GHz

Results of the studies of acoustooptical interaction in a lithium niobate crystal upon excitation of an elastic wave in the direction of the X-axis by a multielement piezoelectric transducer at frequencies about 10 GHz are presented. The experimental method is described. Frequency dependences of the diffracted light intensity and acoustic damping as well as the frequency resolving power are studied. Damping of longitudinal acoustic waves in X-cut lithium niobate is measured to be 1.05±0.02 dB/cm GHz. The maximum diffraction efficiency reached 1% for 1 W of electromagnetic power supplied. The frequency bandwidths at the levels of 3 and 6 dB of the maximum value are 2.5 and 3 GHz, respectively. The frequency resolution is 15 MHz at the frequency of 9 GHz.     

Measurement of Wavelength Dependence of Electro-Optic Coefficients r22 of Non-doped and 5% MgO-doped Congruent LiNbO3 Crystals and 1.8% MgO-doped Quasi-stoichiometric LiNbO3 Crystal by Multiple Reflection Interference Method

The electro-optic coefficient r ₂₂ in the wavelength range from 409 to 1580 nm was measured for non-doped and 5% MgO-doped congruent LiNbO₃ crystals and 1.8% MgO-doped quasi-stoichiometric LiNbO₃ crystals in a simple optical system using a multiple reflection interference method capable of producing high-precision results without the application of antireflection film to the end faces of the crystal. The influence of the manufacturing errors of the electrooptic crystals was discussed on the measurement of the r ₂₂ coefficient. The experimental errors are less than approximately 0.5% in the wavelength range from 409 to 1064 nm and approximately 1% from 1340 to 1580 nm. It was further shown that polarizing of the laser along X axis resulted in highly accurate measurement of the r ₂₂ of LiNbO₃ crystals.     

Acoustic properties of proton exchanged LiNbO3 investigated by Brillouin scattering

The propagation of surface acoustic waves at microwave frequencies (10¹⁰ Hz) was studied on proton exchanged LiNbO₃ crystals by means of Brillouin scattering. The proton exchange causes a large velocity reduction for surface acoustic waves propagating in the x–y plane of ay-cut crystal as well as for longitudinal bulk acoustic waves travelling in the proton exchanged sub-surface region. The velocity reduction amounts to about 20% for both types of waves. The corresponding elastic constants are reduced even by about 40% since the density remains almost constant. This softening seems to involve both the shear and compressional elastic constants, but in an anisotropic way.Thus by proton exchange it is possible to build acoustic waveguides adjacent to the surface, similar to the construction of optical waveguides. By a lateral control of the proton exchange rate optical elements for ultrasonic waves, for example, acoustic lenses can be produced without deformation of the flat surface.The absorption of surface acoustic waves on proton exchanged surfaces is stronger than on pure LiNbO₃ indicating a novel absorption mechanism becoming active in the proton exchanged material.     

Effects of forming gas annealing on LiNbO3 single crystals

Z-cut congruent LiNbO₃ single crystals were annealed in 95%N₂+5%H₂ at high temperatures. X-ray diffraction showed that 2θ of (0 0 0 6) peak is obviously reduced by 0.6° and 1.0° for the samples annealed at 600 and 900 °C, respectively. A new peak appears at the high-energy side of O 1s spectrum in X-ray photoelelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analyses, and the leakage current is greatly increased. It is proposed that hydrogen is incorporated in LiNbO₃ single crystals through forming gas annealing at temperatures up to 900 °C and exists in LiNbO₃ as a proton bound to an oxygen ion through O-H bond with its electron donated.     

Acoustic wave effects on catalysis: design of surfaces with artificially controllable functions for chemical reactions

The effects of surface acoustic wave (SAW) and resonance oscillation (RO) of bulk acoustic waves on the catalysis of metals were studied in an attempt to design a catalyst surface with artificially controllable functions for chemical reactions. In ethanol decomposition on a thin Cu film catalyst deposited on the propagation path of a shear horizontal leaky SAW, the SAW-on increased the activity for ethylene production remarkably but a little for acetaldehyde production. A poled ferroelectric z-cut LiNbO₃ with a thickness extensional mode RO (TERO) and a x-cut LiNbO₃ with a thickness shear mode RO (TSRO) were employed as a substrate, on which a thin Ag film catalyst was deposited. For ethanol decomposition, TERO increased ethylene production activity and the selectivity for ethylene production from 79 to 96%, whereas TSRO caused little activity enhancement for both ethylene and acetaldehyde production. The combination with the results of laser Doppler measurements showed that the activity enhancement and selectivity changes with SAW and RO of the acoustic waves are associated with dynamic large lattice displacement vertical to the surface.