Lithium niobate, known as one of the most widely used nonlinear optical crystals, has recently received significant attention from both academia and industrial circles. The surge in interest can be attributed to the commercial availability of thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) wafers and the rapid advancements in nanofabrication techniques. A milestone was achieved in 2020 with the successful fabrication of wafer-scale TFLN photonic integrated circuits, which paved the way for mass-producible and cost-effective manufacturing of TFLN-based products.
At present, the majority of research on TFLN photonic integrated devices focuses on light manipulation, i.e. field modulation and frequency conversion. The electro-optic, acousto-optic, photo-elastic and piezo-electric effects of lithium niobate are harnessed to modulate the amplitude, phase and frequency of light. The second-order and third-order nonlinearities of lithium niobate enable frequency conversion processes, which leads to the development of frequency converters, optical frequency combs, and supercontinuum generation devices. These exceptional optical properties of lithium niobate enable the electromagnetic wave to manipulate covering from radio-frequency to terahertz, infrared, and visible bands. Using the outstanding performance of TFLN photonic integrated devices, including remarkable modulation rate, wide operation bandwidth, efficient nonlinear frequency conversion, and low power consumption, diverse applications, such as spanning optical information processing, laser ranging, optical frequency combs, microwave optics, precision measurement, quantum optics, and quantum computing, are demonstrated.
Additionally, it is reported that TFLN-based lasers and amplifiers have made remarkable progress, and both optical and electrical pumps are available. These achievements include combining gain materials, such as rare-earth ions or heterostructures, with III-V semiconductors. The integration of low-dimensional materials or absorptive metals with TFLN can also realize TFLN-based detectors. These significant developments expand the potential applications of TFLN photonic integrated devices, thus paving the way for monolithic TFLN chips.
The versatility and high performances of TFLN photonic integrated devices have made revolutionary progress in these fields, opening up new possibilities for cutting-edge technologies and their practical implementations. In this point of view, we briefly introduce the development of TFLN nanofabricationn technology. Subsequently, we review the latest progress of TFLN photonic integrated devices, including lasers, functional nonlinear optical devices, and detectors. Finally, we discuss the future development directions and potential ways of TFLN photonics.
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