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Angle-optimized ion-beam etching for high-verticality and low-loss lithium niobate microresonators
Optics Express
|March 18, 2026
Summary
Researchers developed an angle-optimized ion-beam etching process for lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) devices. This technique achieves high sidewall verticality, enabling improved performance in integrated photonics and electro-optics.
Area of Science:
- Integrated photonics
- Materials science
- Nanofabrication
Background:
- Lithium niobate-on-insulator (LNOI) is crucial for nonlinear photonics and electro-optics.
- Existing LNOI fabrication methods yield waveguides with sidewall verticality below 70°.
Purpose of the Study:
- To improve sidewall verticality in LNOI waveguides.
- To enhance the performance of LNOI-based photonic devices.
Main Methods:
- Developed an angle-optimized ion-beam etching (IBE) process using a soft positive-tone resist mask.
- Investigated the impact of IBE incidence angles (0°-30°) on device characteristics.
Main Results:
- Achieved trench-free LNOI waveguides with sidewall verticality approaching 80°.
- Fabricated compact spiral microresonators with quality factors up to 5.1 × 10⁶ (0.08 dB/cm propagation loss).
- Demonstrated pulse-driven Kerr soliton microcombs with ~24 GHz repetition rates.
Conclusions:
- Angled, resist-masked IBE is a simplified process for high-verticality, low-loss LNOI photonic circuits.
- This method advances the fabrication of advanced LNOI-based photonic devices.
