V-grooves on LiNbO 3 for passive fiber alignment

Abstract

A relative good and economical method has been presented to fabricate V-grooves on LiNbO3 crystal for passive fiber alignment. It has been experimentally investigated of excimer laser ablated V-grooves on LiNbO3 crystal. Two excimer lasers were employed for comparison experiment with the wavelength of 308nm and 193nm respectively. It has been shown that 308nm wavelength performed a poor role in fabricating grooves on LiNbO3 crystal, particularly on both ablation speed and surface quality, while 193nm wavelength showed excellent performance. The corresponding ablation threshold of LiNbo(3) crystal at 193nm has been found to be as low as 0.5J/cm(2). At laser fluence of 3J/cm2 and 1200 shots of laser irradiation, V-grooves with some 130mum have been fabricated without visible damage near the grooves. Oxygen buffering atmosphere has been utilized for improving ablation surface cleansing. PU - SPIE-INT SOC OPTICAL ENGINEERING PI - BELLINGHAM PA - 1000 20TH ST, PO BOX 10, BELLINGHAM, WA 98227-0010 USA