LiNbO3 platforms for optical fiber alignment

A technique for incorporating a groove into a LiNbO3 substrate is described. Both V grooves for fiber alignment and vertical grooves for waveguide end-face formation can be fabricated with this technique. The proposed fabrication method is based on an excimer-laser ablation and a high-speed rotation saw cut for LiNbO3. The former process provides a variety of cross-sectional groove shapes by changing the ablation mask shape of LiNbO3, and the latter provides an optical-quality cutting face. The proposed fabrication method is simple and provides low-cost optical platforms not only for LiNbO3 but also for glasses, polymers, and semiconductors. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.