Preparation and Optical Waveguide Properties of LiNbO3 Thin Films by RF Magnetron Sputtering

Abstract
C-axis-oriented LiNbO3 films were successfully obtained on ZnO/SiO2/Si, ZnO/glass and Pt/SiO2/Si substrates at substrate temperatures higher than 450°C by RF magnetron sputtering. LiNbO3 films were also grown epitaxially on α-Al2O3(001), (012) and (110) and LiTaO3(110) substrates at substrate temperatures higher than 650°C. The minimum optical propagation loss of the films was 6.47 dB/cm (TE0 mode) for the LiNbO3 film on LiTaO3. An improvement in the optical propagation loss after annealing treatment was observed.