Contact poling of Rb:KTiOPO(4) using a micro-structured silicon electrode

A contact poling technique for domain engineering of ferroelectrics using a micro-structured silicon electrode is demonstrated on Rb:KTiOPO₄. High quality QPM gratings were reproducibly fabricated. The silicon electrode is reusable and the technique potentially suitable when complex structures with sub-μm features are to be domain engineered, which otherwise is incompatible with conventional photolithography. A non-negligible domain broadening was seen and attributed to a low nucleation rate using this type of electrode. However, under the appropriate poling conditions, this could be exploited to obtain a QPM grating with a short pitch (2 μm), equal to half of the electrode period.