Femtosecond laser writing of lithium niobate ferroelectric nanodomains

Xiaoyi Xu; Tianxin Wang; Pengcheng Chen; Chao Zhou; Jianan Ma; Dunzhao Wei; Huijun Wang; Ben Niu; Xinyuan Fang; Di Wu; Shining Zhu; Min Gu; Min Xiao; Yong Zhang

doi:10.1038/s41586-022-05042-z

Femtosecond laser writing of lithium niobate ferroelectric nanodomains

Nature. 2022 Sep;609(7927):496-501. doi: 10.1038/s41586-022-05042-z. Epub 2022 Sep 14.

Authors

Xiaoyi Xu^#¹, Tianxin Wang^#¹, Pengcheng Chen¹, Chao Zhou¹, Jianan Ma¹, Dunzhao Wei^{1

2}, Huijun Wang^{1

3}, Ben Niu¹, Xinyuan Fang^{4

5}, Di Wu^{1

6}, Shining Zhu¹, Min Gu^{4

5}, Min Xiao^{1

7}, Yong Zhang⁸

Affiliations

¹ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, School of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
² School of Physics, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.
³ University of Southampton, Southampton, UK.
⁴ Institute of Photonic Chips, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
⁵ Centre for Artificial-Intelligence Nanophotonics, School of Optical-Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Shanghai for Science and Technology, Shanghai, China.
⁶ Jiangsu Key Laboratory of Artificial Functional Materials, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China.
⁷ Department of Physics, University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, AR, USA.
⁸ National Laboratory of Solid State Microstructures, College of Engineering and Applied Sciences, School of Physics, Collaborative Innovation Center of Advanced Microstructures, Nanjing University, Nanjing, China. zhangyong@nju.edu.cn.

^# Contributed equally.

PMID: 36104554
DOI: 10.1038/s41586-022-05042-z

Abstract

Lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) is viewed as a promising material for optical communications and quantum photonic chips^1,2. Recent breakthroughs in LiNbO₃ nanophotonics have considerably boosted the development of high-speed electro-optic modulators^3-5, frequency combs^6,7 and broadband spectrometers⁸. However, the traditional method of electrical poling for ferroelectric domain engineering in optic^9-13, acoustic^14-17 and electronic applications^18,19 is limited to two-dimensional space and micrometre-scale resolution. Here we demonstrate a non-reciprocal near-infrared laser-writing technique for reconfigurable three-dimensional ferroelectric domain engineering in LiNbO₃ with nanoscale resolution. The proposed method is based on a laser-induced electric field that can either write or erase domain structures in the crystal, depending on the laser-writing direction. This approach offers a pathway for controllable nanoscale domain engineering in LiNbO₃ and other transparent ferroelectric crystals, which has potential applications in high-efficiency frequency mixing^20,21, high-frequency acoustic resonators^14-17 and high-capacity non-volatile ferroelectric memory^19,22.

Publication types

Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't