Demonstration of on-chip gigahertz acousto-optic modulation at near-visible wavelengths

Abstract

Lithium niobate integrated photonics has recently received significant attention because it exploits the attractive properties of lithium niobate on an integrated platform which provides strong optical confinement as well as high photonic integration density. Although many optical functionalities of lithium niobate have been demonstrated on a chip in the telecom band, the visible and near-visible regimes are less explored. This is mainly because devices with a relatively smaller feature size are required which increases fabrication difficulty. Here, we explored the acousto-optic effect of lithium niobate on a chip at near-visible wavelengths (765-781 nm) and demonstrated acousto-optic modulation with the modulation frequency up to 2.44 GHz. We adopted an etchless process for the device fabrication and applied the principle of bound states in the continuum to optimize the device performance. By demonstrating functionality at near-visible wavelengths, our devices will enable many on-chip applications ranging from frequency metrology to quantum information processing.