Impact of the crystal orientation of Fe-doped lithium niobate on photo-assisted proton exchange and chemical etching
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Xuju Jiang; Chen Lipin; Feifei Li; Liang Chao; Wenbo Yan; Lihong Shi; Li Shaobei; Wang Xuliang; Hongjian Chen; Guohong Liang; Fan Bolin; Zan Zhitao
- Source
- Scientific Reports
Scientific Reports, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 1-11 (2017)
- Subject
- 010302 applied physics
Range (particle radiation)
Multidisciplinary
Materials science
Proton
Scanning electron microscope
lcsh:R
Lithium niobate
Analytical chemistry
lcsh:Medicine
02 engineering and technology
021001 nanoscience & nanotechnology
01 natural sciences
Isotropic etching
Article
Crystal
chemistry.chemical_compound
chemistry
Etching (microfabrication)
0103 physical sciences
lcsh:Q
lcsh:Science
0210 nano-technology
Intensity (heat transfer)
- Language
- ISSN
- 2045-2322
Photo-assisted proton-exchange (PAPE) is carried out on the +c- and y-surfaces of Fe-doped LiNbO3 crystals and the impact of the crystal orientation on the PAPE and the subsequent photo-assisted chemical etching (PACE) is investigated. The proton distributions and the morphologies of the proton-exchanged surfaces are studied by using Micro-FT-IR, Micro-Raman, optical and scanning electron microscopy. Through the PAPE process the proton-exchange can be confined in a specific region by an incident laser beam with fixed intensity profile. It is found that the y-surface is much more fragile than the +c-surface and that micro-cracks are easily generated on the y-surface during the PAPE process. Moreover, the range and number of these micro-cracks can be controlled by the experimental parameters of the PAPE process. The etching morphology of the y-surface shows apparent directional features along the c-axis of LiNbO3 crystal and the proton spatial distribution is found elongated along the c-axis. Both effects are attributed to the accumulation of photovoltaic charges at the two sides of the illumination area along the c-axis.