Electro-optically controlled beam deflection for grazing incidence geometry on a domain-engineered interface in LiNbO3

We report an analysis on the electro-optically induced beam deflection expe rienced by light traversing an interface between two anti-parallel domains in a sample of LiNbO3. In contrast to other work on prism deflection scheme s, we present a grazing incidence geometry for light at incidence angles be tween 87.7 degrees and 89.0 degrees that has been investigated to maximise the deflection angles achievable. Further improvements can be obtained for both range of angular deflection and transmission uniformity, by faceting t he exit face of the device at an optimum angle. We present a theoretical an alysis for this configuration and compare with data obtained for a waveleng th of 1.52 mum. A practical geometry would permit a deflection of similar t o 140 mrad for an applied voltage of 1 kV. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science BN. Al l rights reserved.