Laser generation of acoustic waves at a periodic domain structure in lithium niobate

Generation of coherent acoustic oscillations due to the interaction of laser pulses with the periodic domain structure formed in a lithium niobate single crystal is observed. It is found that the excitation of acoustic waves is most efficient when the generated wavelength is equal to the period of the domain structure. The proposed mechanism of the optical generation of acoustic oscillations consists of the photogeneration of free carriers, which compensate the polarization fields within the domains, and the occurrence of alternating elastic stresses caused by the piezoelectric effect.     

The effect of electrical boundary conditions on the characteristics of surface acoustic waves propagating in potassium niobate

The study of the effect of a perfectly conducting plane placed at a certain distance from the surface of a potassium niobate crystal on the characteristics of the generalized Rayleigh and Gulyaev-Bleustein surface waves is continued. In addition, the effect of an infinitely thin conducting layer applied to the surface of the piezoelectric on the characteristics of these waves is analyzed. It is found that a variation in the conductance of this layer can produce a result that completely differs from the result obtained when a perfectly conducting plane is moved toward the surface, although the extreme states of these actions (electrically open and short-circuited surfaces) are identical. A possible physical explanation of this difference is proposed.     

Propagation of high-frequency acoustic waves through the structure of Jahn-Teller ions in lithium niobate with iron

This paper reports on the results of an investigation into the specific features of the propagation of acoustic waves in lithium niobate LiNbO₃ with iron ions under laser irradiation of regions with increased and decreased concentrations of Fe²⁺ ions. It is shown that the observed effects of local variations in the damping and velocity of acoustic waves are associated with the strong electron-phonon interaction of Jahn-Teller Fe²⁺ ions.     

Hybridization of acoustic waves in piezoelectric plates

The interaction (hybridization) of different types of acoustic waves of zero and higher orders propagating in lithium niobate piezoelectric plates is theoretically investigated. Different crystallographic orientations of the plates and different directions of wave propagation in them are considered. It is shown that, for an electrically free plate with the propagation direction along any of the crystallographic axes, the dispersion curves have intersection points and hybridization is absent. However, when the propagation direction slightly changes or when one of the plate surfaces is short-circuited, the dispersion curves separate and the waves become coupled. A quantitative coefficient characterizing the degree of wave hybridization with allowance for both mechanical and electric coupling is introduced. It is shown that the dependence of this coefficient on the product of the plate thickness by the wave frequency determines the extent of separation of the dispersion curves of interacting waves. The phenomenon under study is of both fundamental and practical interest, for example, in connection with the problem of an efficient excitation of nonpiezoactive acoustic waves in piezoelectric plates.     

Investigation of anomalous acoustooptic interaction in lithium niobate crystal

Expressions are derived for the calculation of the central frequencies f _1,2 ⁰ , and the frequency band f of wide-band anomalous acoustooptic interaction in crystals of arbitrary symmetry class. The effect of the difference between the ray and phase velocities of the diffracted light on the magnitude of f _1,2 ⁰ and f is pointed out. Results are presented of the computed acoustooptic quality factor M₂, the frequencies f _1,2 ⁰ , f and the electromechanical coupling constant for the tangential field k_D for cuts of LiNbO₃ crystals ensuring maximum diffraction efficiency. It is shown that the maximum M₂=22.10^–18 cgs units in this crystal is attained in the case of anomalous light diffraction by the slow shear wave propagating in the Y-120 direction. To the same cut there corresponds the maximum K_D=0.685. The design of anomalous acoustooptic deflectors developed is described. Experimental results are presented.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Fizika, No. 7, pp. 42–47, July, 1981.     

Coherence of acoustic modes propagating through shallow water internal waves

The 1995 Shallow Water Acoustics in a Random Medium (SWARM) experiment [Apel et al., IEEE J. Ocean. Eng. 22, 445-464 (1997)] was conducted off the New Jersey coast. The experiment featured two well-populated vertical receiving arrays, which permitted the measured acoustic field to be decomposed into its normal modes. The decomposition was repeated for successive transmissions allowing the amplitude of each mode to be tracked. The modal amplitudes were observed to decorrelate with time scales on the order of 100 s [Headrick et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 107(1), 201-220 (2000)]. In the present work, a theoretical model is proposed to explain the observed decorrelation. Packets of intense internal waves are modeled as coherent structures moving along the acoustic propagation path without changing shape. The packets cause mode coupling and their motion results in a changing acoustic interference pattern. The model is consistent with the rapid decorrelation observed in SWARM. The model also predicts the observed partial recorrelation of the field at longer time scales. The model is first tested in simple continuous-wave simulations using canonical representations for the internal waves. More detailed time-domain simulations are presented mimicking the situation in SWARM. Modeling results are compared to experimental data.     

Nonlinear response of photorefractive lithium tantalate and niobate at acoustic frequencies

An amplification of the intensity of pump oscillations is observed experimentally at frequencies from 100 Hz to 1 kHz during photoinduced light scattering and holographic-type parametric scattering in photorefractive lithium tantalate and niobate. Possible ways are analyzed for explaining the existence of a photorefractive response in these crystals over times of 10⁻²–10⁻³ s, which are five orders of magnitude shorter than the Maxwell time. Zh. éksp. Teor. Fiz. 112, 1490–1498 (October 1997)     

On the stability of acoustic waves propagating in a nonstationary moving medium

We analyze the stability of acoustic waves in a medium moving with a time-variable velocity. An instability criterion for these waves is obtained and analyzed for the weak modulation of medium velocity. The harmonics that emerge during the propagation under parametric resonance are shown to have an additional frequency shift.Translated from Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Radiofizika, Vol. 39, No. 9, pp. 1087–1090, September, 1996.This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Fundamental Research under Projects 95-02-05001 (G. I. Grigor'ev and V. V. Tamoikin) and 96-05-64277 (O. N. Savina).     

Hydrogen in lithium niobate

This article reviews the current knowledge on the main properties and applications of hydrogen in LiNbO₃. The review is divided into three parts. The first is devoted to general properties such as methods of defect production and control, techniques used for their detection and characterization, as well as interactions with other lattice defects. The second part considers the central role played by OH^- defects in the fabrication of optical waveguides by the protonexchange method. Conditions for the exchange process, the structure of exchanged layers, optical properties of exchanged waveguides and connection with relevant practical devices are examined. Finally, the third part discusses the production of permanent volume photorefractive gratings by the fixing process, where OH^- ions are also considered to be the main responsible defects. In particular, the physics of the fixing process, current mathematical models and two major applications are discussed.     

Interaction phenomena and effect of higher order dispersion on electron acoustic solitary waves in weakly relativistic regimes

The interaction phenomena of electron acoustic solitary waves (EASWs) and the higher order correction of Korteweg‐de Vries (KdV) equations (KdVEs) have investigated in unmagnetized collisionless plasma system consisting of relativistic cold electrons and electron beams, non‐relativistic Maxwellian hot electrons and stationary ions. To understand the physical issues concerned, the two‐sided KdVEs using extended Poincaré‐Lighthill‐Kue (ePLK) method are derived taking the higher order correction into consideration. The analyses reveal that the widths and amplitudes of EASWs (as obtain from KdVEs) are decreasing with plasma parameters. The plasma parameters are responsible for the modification of KdV‐soliton structure. It is found that the narrowness of width and the steepness of dip of the solitons become more pronounced and the electric field behaves like semi‐kink solitons due to the higher order correction of KdVEs. Dip shape rarefactive soliton becomes pronounced by plasma parameters. The phase shifts of EASWs are also enhanced due to the effects of plasma species temperatures and density ratios.     

Intensity fluctuations of spherical acoustic waves propagating through thermal turbulence*

The intensity fluctuations of acoustic waves that propagate through thermal turbulence are investigated under well controlled laboratory conditions. Two heated grids in air are placed horizontally in a large anechoic room and the mixing of the free convection plumes above them generates a homogeneous isotropic random thermal field. The spectrum of refractive index fluctuations is accurately described by a modified von Karman model which takes into account the entire spectrum of turbulence. Experimental data are obtained by varying both the frequency of the spherical wave and the distance of propagation. In this paper we concentrate on the variance of the normalized intensity fluctuations and on their probability distributions. These measurements cover all the regimes from weak scattering to strong scattering including the peak of the intensity variance. Experimental values of the scintillation index are compared with classical theoretical predictions and also with the results of recent numerical simulations. The classical probability density functions (log-normal, exponential, I-K) are tested against the measured probability distributions. The generalized gamma distribution, which varies smoothly from log-normal to exponential as a function of two parameters, appears m represent the experimental data for a very large range of scattering conditions.     

Effect of additives for higher removal rate in lithium niobate chemical mechanical planarization

High roughness and a greater number of defects were created by lithium niobate (LN; LiNbO₃) processes such as traditional grinding and mechanical polishing (MP), should be decreased for manufacturing LN device. Therefore, an alternative process for gaining defect-free and smooth surface is needed. Chemical mechanical planarization (CMP) is suitable method in the LN process because it uses a combination approach consisting of chemical and mechanical effects. First of all, we investigated the LN CMP process using commercial slurry by changing various process conditions such as down pressure and relative velocity. However, the LN CMP process time using commercial slurry was long to gain a smooth surface because of lower material removal rate (MRR). So, to improve the material removal rate (MRR), the effects of additives such as oxidizer (hydrogen peroxide; H₂O₂) and complexing agent (citric acid; C₆H₈O₇) in a potassium hydroxide (KOH) based slurry, were investigated. The manufactured slurry consisting of H₂O₂-citric acid in the KOH based slurry shows that the MRR of the H₂O₂ at 2 wt% and the citric acid at 0.06 M was higher than the MRR for other conditions.     

Features of surface acoustic wave propagation in lithium niobate damaged by an electron beam

The propagation of surface acoustic waves (SAWs) in a thin-film aluminum waveguide of Δv/v type fabricated on a 128° Y-X LiNbO₃ plate by lift-off lithography and direct writing by a 20-keV electron beamis studied experimentally. The temperature dependence of the phase of the signal passed through an SAW delayline exhibits steps and hysteresis. The line consists of such a waveguide and two interdigital transducers with acenter frequency of 486 MHz and is exposed to a nitrogen flow. The vapors of water-containing analytes introduced into the nitrogen flow cause anomalous phase changes. These changes are of opposite sign and more thanone order of magnitude greater than the phase changes observed under similar conditions in specimens fabricated by optical lithography. It is concluded that these phenomena offer possibilities for designing SAW humidity sensors with a low threshold of sensitivity.     

Laser-generated thermoelastic acoustic sources and Lamb waves in anisotropic plates

The effect of anisotropy and temperature on the dispersive Lamb wave generation and propagation in a transversely isotropic thin plate has been investigated. A quantitative numerical model for the laser-generated transient ultrasonic Lamb waves propagating along arbitrary directions is presented by using a finite-element method. All factors, such as spatial and time distributions of the incident laser beam, optical penetration, thermal diffusivity, thickness of the plate, and source–receiver distance, can be taken into account. The effects on the ultrasound waveform of the size of the optoacoustic source are investigated; in the limit of strong optical absorption, a subsurface thermal source gives rise to both vertical and lateral shear tensions. The lateral shear tension is equivalent to applying a shear dipole at the top face; the amplitude of the dipole is a function of material symmetry, contrary to the isotropic case, and the character and strength of the equivalent surface stress are a function of propagation direction. The specific results for the lower anti-symmetric and symmetric mode propagation in all planar directions are presented in the thermoelastic regime; the spatial dispersion (variation of the velocity with the direction of propagation) as well as the frequency dispersion is analyzed. PACS 43.35.+d; 02.70.Dh; 42.62.-b; 78.20.Nv; 81.70.Cv     

Two-photon apodization in lithium niobate

We demonstrate a novel apodization technique for holographic data storage using two-photon recording in stoichiometric lithium niobate. The gating light-intensity profile is used to achieve grating apodization inside the bulk of the crystal during recording in the transmission geometry. Experimental Bragg-selectivity curves and theoretical fits indicate a >20-dB drop in multiplexing cross talk.     

Photoinduced domains in lithium niobate

We have observed the optically induced occurrence of domain structure with polarization opposite to the spontaneous polarization of a single-domain sample of lithium niobate. The appearance of the domains can be explained by a redistribution of the density of the Fe²⁺ and Fe³⁺ impurity ions under the action of the photoinduced field and subsequent additional inverse polarization of the environment surrounding the Fe²⁺ ions. Fiz. Tverd. Tela (St. Petersburg) 40, 531–533 (March 1998)     

Controlling flexural waves in thin plates by using transformation acoustic metamaterials

In this study, we design periodic grille structures on a single homogenous thin plate to achieve anisotropic acoustic metamaterials that can control flexural waves. The metamaterials can achieve the bending control of flexural waves in a thin plate at will by designing only one dimension in the thickness direction, which makes it easier to use this metamaterial to design transformation acoustic devices. The numerical simulation results show that the metamaterials can accurately control the bending waves over a wide frequency range. The experimental results verify the validity of the theoretical analysis. This research provides a more practical theoretical method of controlling flexural waves in thin-plate structures.     

The analysis and interpretation of some special properties of higher order symmetric lamb waves: the case for plates

Results derived from exact linear homogeneous elastodynamic theory are used for two-dimensional unloaded plates in order to understand certain features generated by proper symmetric Lamb modes. It is shown that S1 modes for all elastic materials have a phase velocity defined below the usual critical frequency and which initially exhibits anomalous dispersion (has a negative slope with respect to frequency). Over a certain range, it has a phase velocity that is double valued. In addition, there are an infinite number of proper symmetric Lamb modes that have this characteristic for materials with a Poisson ratio equal to 1/3. It also appears that all A3n modes are anomalous when V(L) < or = 2 V(T). The cause and implication of these effects are examined, including an associated negative group velocity over a small frequency zone for these modes. Further, it is noted that all proper symmetric Lamb modes have a plateau region in phase velocity with respect to wave number. It is shown that this always occurs for a phase velocity corresponding to the longitudinal bulk velocity of the elastic material. These issues are examined along with how one may obtain material parameters and possibly plate thickness from their dispersion curves.     

Optical spectra of lithium niobate

The specific features revealed in the optical spectra of lithium niobate crystals at temperatures of 90 and 120–125°C can be attributed to the change in the electronic subsystem and the related isostructural transformation of the crystal lattice. In the near-IR range, the optical absorption spectra of lithium niobate crystals exhibit bands (1.43 eV) assigned to polarons of large radius with a binding energy of 0.48 eV. The decrease observed in the absorption coefficient at the maxima of these bands with an increase in the temperature to 160°C can be explained by the decay of polarons of large radius at these temperatures.     

Locating wide band acoustic sources using higher order statistics

The conventional array processing algorithms are effective when the propagation model and the array geometry are known and when the additive noise is white or with a known covariance matrix. In several real situations these assumptions are not verified, hence a degradation of their performances. To cope with this problem, we resort to the higher order statistics of the received signals. The interest of the published papers was the separation of the narrow band and uncorrelated acoustic sources. In this paper, we propose a cumulant based algorithm to characterize the wide band and fully correlated signals. This algorithm removes the additive Gaussian noise and then improves the existing narrow band array processing techniques. This method consists in combining the different information contained in the analysis band by using the optimal transformation matrices. The basic idea is based on both the fourth order statistics and the whitening processing of the received data. This leads to cleaned data and then to improve the source separation. The performance of the proposed algorithm is obtained by simulations for several test cases of interest.