Analysis of Waveguides on Lithium Niobate Thin Films

Waveguides formed by etching, proton-exchange (PE), and strip-loaded on single-crystal lithium niobate (LN) thin film were designed and simulated by a full-vectorial finite difference method. The single-mode condition, optical power distribution, and bending loss of these kinds of waveguides were studied and compared systematically. For the PE waveguide, the optical power distributed in LN layer had negligible change with the increase of PE thickness. For the strip-loaded waveguide, the relationships between optical power distribution in LN layer and waveguide thickness were different for quasi-TE (q-TE) and quasi-TM (q-TM) modes. The bending loss would decrease with the increase of bending radius. There was a bending loss caused by the electromagnetic field leakage when the neff of q-TM waveguide was smaller than that of nearby TE planar waveguide. LN ridge waveguides possessed a low bending loss even at a relatively small bending radius. This study is helpful for the understanding of waveguide structures as well as for the optimization and the fabrication of high-density integrated optical components.