Fabrication of alignment grooves in LiNbO3 substrates for simplified optical fibre pigtailing

A technique for fabricating alignment grooves in LiNbO3 substrates, for sim plified optical fibre attachment, is reported. The grooves are produced thr ough the etching of material that has been domain inverted via spatially se lective electric field poling. The etched grooves are of very high surface quality, and have a profile that is determined by the area of domain invers ion produced. The technique lends itself to a method of fibre alignment tha t is simplified, more reliable, and less labour intensive than existing sch emes.