Visible and near-infrared waveguide properties in LiTaO3 crystal produced by swift Ar8+ ion irradiation

In this work, we report the optical waveguide formation in LiTaO3 crystal via Ar8+ ion irradiation at an energy of 180 MeV and a fluence of 2x10(12) cm(-2). The surface damage behavior of LiTaO3 crystal and structure change along the ion trajectory are studied through Rutherford backscattering/channeling spectra and micro-Raman spectra, respectively. The modal profile measurement through end-face coupling proves that the LiTaO3 waveguide can effectively support multimode propagation in the visible (633 nm) and single-mode propagation in the near-infrared (1539 nm) telecommunication wavebands. The waveguide propagation loss at 633 nm is measured by the back-reflection method.