FABRICATION OF A PERIODICALLY POLED LAMINAR DOMAIN-STRUCTURE WITH A PITCH OF A FEW MICROMETERS BY APPLYING AN EXTERNAL ELECTRIC-FIELD

The fabrication of a fine-pitch laminar domain structure in a lithium niobate (LiNbO3) single crystal is reported. Special emphasis is place d on how to fabricate the structure homogeneously, in which it was fou nd that the application of multiple pulses is beneficial, and how to f abricate the structure in a relatively thick substrate, in which it wa s found that the application of a accumulated static field on the mult iple pulses is useful. The following questions are discussed: Why the inverted domain structure corresponds to the structure of the electrod e on the +z face, and why the application of multiple pulses is useful in the fabrication of a homogeneous laminar domain structure. (C) 199 8 American Institute of Physics. [S0021-8979(98)08216-4].