Ferroelectric Nanodomain Engineering in Bulk Lithium Niobate Crystals in Ultrashort-Pulse Laser Nanopatterning Regime

Ferroelectric nanodomains were formed in bulk lithium niobate single crystals near nanostructured microtracks laser-inscribed by 1030-nm 0.3-ps ultrashort laser pulses at variable pulse energies in sub- and weakly filamentary laser nanopatterning regimes. The microtracks and related nanodomains were characterized by optical, scanning probe and confocal second-harmonic generation microscopy methods. The nanoscale material sub-structure in the microtracks was visualized in the sample cross-sections by atomic force microscopy (AFM), appearing weakly birefringent in polarimetric microscope images. The piezoresponce force microscopy (PFM) revealed sub-100 nm ferroelectric domains formed in the vicinity of the embedded microtrack seeds, indicating a promising opportunity to arrange nanodomains in the bulk ferroelectric crystal in on-demand positions. These findings open a new modality in direct laser writing technology, which is related to nanoscale writing of ferroelectric nanodomains and prospective three-dimensional micro-electrooptical and nanophotonic devices in nonlinear-optical ferroelectrics.