Simultaneous characterization of the electro-optic, converse-piezoelectric, and electroabsorptive effects in epitaxial (Sr, Ba)Nb2O6 thin films

Implementation of the linear electro-optic (EO) effect in thin film waveguides is expected to allow drastic reductions in the drive voltage, power, and dimensions of devices devoted to light modulation. It should also enable the realization of electrically tunable photonic crystal devices. In this paper we introduce a method which eliminates systematically the sources of the unreliability which strongly affects thin film EO characterization. Based on a Fabry-Perot reflective configuration, the method enables characterizing simultaneously the EO, converse-piezoelectric, and electroabsorptive effects in a film. It provides the magnitude and sign of each of the involved coefficients, and allows accounting for the whole of experimental data versus angle of incidence for both transverse-electric and transverse-magnetic polarizations. At lambda=633 nm and room temperature, the results obtained with an epitaxial strontium barium niobate (SrxBa1-xNb2O6, x=0.60) ferroelectric thin film, are: r(13)=+ 8.5 +/- 1.3 pm/V, r(33)=+38.9 +/- 0.5 pm/V, d(33) =Delta e/Delta V=+21 +/- 4 pm/V, and Delta k(o)/Delta V=(+9.8 +/- 0.6) x 10(-6), where r(13) and r(33) are two linear EO coefficients, d(33) is a converse-piezoelectric coefficient, and e, k(o), V represent, respectively, the film thickness, film ordinary extinction coefficient, and applied voltage. Converse-piezoelectric and electroabsorptive effects are found significant in the film response at a frequency below piezoelectric resonance. Diagonal and effective EO coefficients of the (Sr, Ba)Nb2O6 (SBN) film explored in the present work are larger than those of a crystal of lithium niobate (LN) at the same wavelength lambda=633 nm. Taking into account the significant difference in dielectric permittivity between the two materials, advances and potential of LN and SBN thin film paths are compared. (C) 2011 American Institute of Physics. [doi:10.1063/1.3514083]