Ferroelectric materials and thin film processing for electro-optic modulators

Highly oriented BaTiO3 based thin films have been grown with pulsed laser deposition technique on single crystal MgO (001) substrates.The structural, dielectric and optical properties have been characterized with x-ray diffraction, an atomic-force-microscope, prism coupling and impedance studies.Thin film deposition parameters have been optimized to grow optical quality ferroelectric thin films with controllable crystal orientation and birefringence.The crystal lattice tetragonal distortion was found to be controllable by adjusting the deposition conditions.The waveguide manufacturing process was developed to fabricate active optical waveguides based on BaTiO3 and an effective electro-optic coefficient of 25 pm/V was determined