UV Direct Write Metal Enhanced Redox (MER) Domain Engineering for Realization of Surface Acoustic Devices on Lithium Niobate

Abstract

A new and highly versatile domain patterning method - ultraviolet direct write metal enhanced redox (UV direct write MER) - achieves deep domains with practically no thermally-induced damage on the surface of lithium niobate crystals. In UV direct write MER, after coating with a thin layer of chromium, the domain inversion is generated by a redox process induced in the crystal by illumination with high intensity UV in an ambient dry nitrogen atmosphere. This new technique enables the fabrication of practical piezoelectric acoustic superlattice structures on 128° YX-cut LiNbO3, the most widely used crystal cut for surface acoustic wave applications. For example, UV direct write MER was used to form an acoustic superlattice 128° YX structure that in turn enabled the generation of surface acoustic waves of sufficient strength to develop fluid flow within a droplet of water, demonstrating its potential in practical microfluidic manipulation. This is the first demonstration of a UV direct write surface acoustic wave transducer reported to date, made possible only due to the unique qualities of the MER domain engineering process.