Engineering of lithium niobate domain structure through the off-centered Czochralski growth technique

In this work, it is shown that by controlling the solid-liquid interface shape and provoking changes in the pulling to rotation rate ratio, it is possible to obtain the desired engineered domain structure, overloading problems such as the high electric field necessary for LiNbO3 domain reversal and the domain widening of the electroded area taking place in photolithographic techniques. LiNbO3 has been domain engineered through the off-centered Czochralski growth technique simultaneously doped with rare active laser ions. A computer simulation of the tuning curve of the engineered domain structure obtained has been realized. The analysis shows that multiple processes are simultaneously quasiphase-matched in the sample grown, and that control during the crystal growth process can be used to engineer the ferroelectric domain structure for multiple nonlinear processes in the same sample. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.