Acousto-optically tunable lithium niobate photonic crystal

Nadège Courjal (1) , Sarah Benchabane (1) , Jean Dahdah (1) , Gwenn Ulliac (1) , Yannick Gruson (1) , Vincent Laude (1)

1 FEMTO-ST - Franche-Comté Électronique Mécanique, Thermique et Optique - Sciences et Technologies (UMR 6174)

We report on an active two-dimensional lithium niobate photonic crystal (PhC) driven by stationary Rayleigh surface acoustic waves. The configuration relies on two interdigital transducers that modulate the refractive index through the acousto-optical effect. Highly efficient, compact acousto-optical PhCs with an active length of only 13 μm and a driving electrical power of 20 mW have been fabricated and characterized. Experiments show that an enhancement factor of the elasto-optical interaction of the order of 61 is obtained thanks to slow light effects in the PhC.

Mots clés: acousto-optical effects; interdigital transducers; lithium compounds; photoelasticity; photonic crystals; piezo-optical effects; Rayleigh waves; refractive index; Surface acoustic wave transducers; Piezoelectric and ferroelectric transducers; Dielectric; ferroelectric; and piezoelectric devices; Photonic bandgap materials

Domaines: Optique [physics.optics]; Optique / photonique

Nadège Courjal, Sarah Benchabane, Jean Dahdah, Gwenn Ulliac, Yannick Gruson, et al.. Acousto-optically tunable lithium niobate photonic crystal. Applied Physics Letters, 2010, 96, pp.131103. ⟨10.1063/1.3374886⟩. ⟨hal-00539564⟩