Fabrication of Y128- and Y36-cut lithium niobate single-crystalline thin films by crystal-ion-slicing technique

Abstract

Y128- and Y36-cut single-crystalline lithium niobate (LN) thin films are fabricated by the crystal-ion-slicing (CIS) technique onto LN substrates. The conditions for the successful exfoliation of submicron-thick LN thin films are independent of the wafer orientation used in the present work. Wafer bonding using benzocyclobutene (BCB) is adopted to transfer LN thin films onto substrates, instead of the generally used hydrophilic bonding, which does not need a strict surface polishing process before the bonding. A noncontact polishing method involving low-energy Ar+ irradiation is adopted to treat the sliced LN thin films. The atomic force microscopy result shows that the surface roughness of the LN thin film is reduced from 10.6 to 6.4 nm.