The real-time dynamic holographic display of LN:Bi,Mg crystals and defect-related electron mobility

Holographic display has attracted widespread interest because of its ability to show the complete information of the object and bring people an unprecedented sense of presence. The absence of ideal recording materials has hampered the realization of their commercial applications. Here we report that the response time of a bismuth and magnesium codoped lithium niobate(LN:Bi,Mg) crystal is shortened to 7.2 ms and a sensitivity as high as 646 cm/J. The crystal was used to demonstrate a real-time holographic display with a refresh rate of 60 Hz, as that of the popular high-definition television. Moreover, the first-principles calculations indicate that the electron mobility while Bi occupying Nb-site is significantly greater than that in Li-site, which directly induces the fast response of LN:Bi,Mg crystals when the concentration of Mg is above its doping threshold.

Highly efficient on-chip erbium–ytterbium co-doped lithium niobate waveguide amplifiers

The ability to amplify optical signals is of paramount importance in photonic integrated circuits(PICs). Recently,lithium niobate on insulator(LNOI) has attracted increasing interest as an emerging PIC platform. However, the shortage of efficient active devices on the LNOI platform limits the development of optical amplification. Here,we report an efficient waveguide amplifier based on erbium and ytterbium co-doped LNOI by using electron beam lithography and an inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching process. We have demonstrated that signal amplification emerges at a low pump power of 0.1 mW, and the net internal gain in the communication band is 16.52 dB/cm under pumping of a 974 nm continuous laser. Benefiting from the efficient pumping facilitated by energy transfer between ytterbium and erbium ions, an internal conversion efficiency of 10% has been achieved, which is currently the most efficient waveguide amplifier under unidirectional pumping reported on the LNOI platform, to our knowledge. This work proposes an efficient active device for LNOI integrated optical systems that may become an important fundamental component of future lithium niobate photonic integration platforms.

Integrated lithium niobate single-mode lasers by the Vernier effect

Microcavity lasers based on erbium-doped lithium niobate on insulator(LNOI),which are key devices for LNOI integrated photonics,have attracted significant attention recently.In this study,we report the realization of a C-band single-mode laser using the Vernier effect in two coupled erbium-doped LNOI microrings with different radii under the pump of a 980-nm continuous laser.The laser,operating stably over a large range of pumping power,has a pump threshold of about 200μW and a side-mode suppression ratio exceeding 26 dB.The high-performance LNOI single-mode laser will promote the development of lithium niobate integrated photonics.

Microdisk lasers on an erbium-doped lithium-niobite chip

Lithium niobate on insulator(LNOI) provides a platform for the fundamental physics investigations and practical applications of integrated photonics. However, as an indispensable building block of integrated photonics, lasers are in short supply. In this paper, erbium-doped LNOI laser in the 1550-nm band was demonstrated in microdisk cavities with high quality factors fabricated in batches by UV exposure, inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching, and chemomechanical polishing. The threshold and conversion efficiency of the erbium-doped LNOI microdisk laser were measured to be lower than 1 m W and 6.5×10^(-5)%, respectively. This work will benefit the development of integrated photonics based on LNOI.

On-chip erbium-doped lithium niobate waveguide amplifiers [Invited]

Lithium niobate on insulator(LNOI), as an emerging and promising optical integration platform, faces shortages of on-chip active devices including lasers and amplifiers. Here, we report the fabrication of on-chip erbium-doped LNOI waveguide amplifiers based on electron beam lithography and inductively coupled plasma reactive ion etching. A net internal gain of ~30 d B/cm in the communication band was achieved in the fabricated waveguide amplifiers under the pump of a974 nm continuous laser. This work develops new active devices on LNOI and may promote the development of LNOI integrated photonics.