Tunable diffraction grating with transparent indium-tin oxide electrodes on a lithium niobate X-cut crystal

Abstract

A tunable diffraction grating based on an electrooptic X-cut lithium niobate crystal has been manufactured and experimentally analyzed. The period of electrodes is 290 μm, the electrode width is 117.5 μm, and the thickness of an electrode is 150 – 160 nm. The electrodes are made of a transparent conducting indium-tin oxide that serves as an antireflection coating with the aim of increasing the optical transmission. In order to prevent crystal polarization switching and electrical breakdown an optimized electrode topology with end ellipticity 1:1 and increased interelectrode gap is used. The optical diagram of the tunable grating with alternating electrode potentials for various gap voltages is analyzed. The intensity of the zero order of diffraction is shown to decrease by 40 % at a voltage of 800 V. At the same time, the origination of new diffraction orders at angles ± λ / (2d) is noted. The measurement of the forward-bias and reverse-bias regions of the modulation characteristic reveals the absence of hysteresis, which confirms the correctness of the electrode topology design.