Manufacturing method for electrooptic element and optical deflector including electrooptic element

• US 8,463,082 B2
• Filed: 09/07/2011
• Issued: 06/11/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/13/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Original Assignee: Ricoh Company Limited
• Inventors: Nakagawa, Jun, Nakamura, Koichiro, Suzuki, Shuichi
• Primary Examiner(s): KIM, ELLEN E
• Application Number:
  US13/227,018
• Publication Number:
  US 20120063715A1
• Time in Patent Office: 643 Days
• Field of Search: 385 8- 11, 298/46
• US Class Current: 385/8
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/05 with ferro-electric properties G02F1/035, G02F1/055 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/29 for the control of the position or the direction of light beams, i.e. deflection
• CPC Class Codes: G02F 1/3558 Poled materials, e.g. with periodic poling; Fabrication of domain inverted structures, e.g. for quasi-phase-matching [QPM]
• CPC Class Codes: Y10T 29/49155 Manufacturing circuit on or in base

Abstract

An electrooptic element includes an optical waveguide layer made from a ferroelectric material and having a polarization inverted region of a predetermined shape having an optical incidence face and an optical exit face, and an upper electrode layer and a lower electrode layer formed on a top face and a bottom face of the optical waveguide layer, respectively, in which the ferroelectric material is magnesium-oxide-doped lithium niobate, and at least one of the optical incidence face and the optical exit face of the optical waveguide layer is formed in parallel with a crystal face of the ferroelectric material.

Claims

1. An electrooptic element comprising:

an optical waveguide layer made from a ferroelectric material as a magnesium-oxide-doped lithium niobate and including a polarization inverted region of a predetermined shape having an optical incidence face and an optical exit face so that at least one of the optical incidence face and the optical exit face is formed in parallel with a crystal face of the ferroelectric material; and

an upper electrode layer and a lower electrode layer formed on a top face and a bottom face of the optical waveguide layer, respectively.

2. An electrooptic element according to claim 1, wherein

the polarization inverted region extends along a thickness of the optical waveguide layer and has a cross section in a polygon shape along the thickness of the optical waveguide layer surrounded by at least three straight lines.

3. An electrooptic element according to claim 1, wherein

the polarization inverted region extends along a thickness of the optical waveguide layer and has a cross section in a fan shape along the thickness of the optical waveguide layer surrounded by at least two straight lines and an arc.

4. An electrooptic element according to claim 1, wherein:

the optical waveguide layer includes a plurality of polarization inverted regions arranged in a row to intersect with the thickness of the optical waveguide layer so that a light beam successively passes through the respective optical incidence faces and optical exit faces of the polarization inverted regions.

5. An electrooptic element according to claim 4, wherein

in a direction in which the light beam passes, a width of an n+1^th polarization inverted region is set to be larger than a width of an n^th polarization inverted region, the n being a natural number.

6. An electrooptic element according to claim 1, wherein

the optical waveguide layer is made up of a core layer as the optical waveguide layer and cladding layers formed respectively between the core layer and the upper electrode layer and between the core layer and the lower electrode layer.

7. An electrooptic element according to claim 6, further comprising:

a base plate; and

an adhesive layer formed between the lower electrode layer and the base plate.

8. A manufacturing method for the electrooptic element according to claim 1, comprising the steps of:

forming a resist pattern on at least one of a top face and a bottom face of a substrate made from the ferroelectric material, the resist pattern having an opening in a shape in line with a shape of the polarization inverted region;

forming the polarization inverted region in the substrate to be the optical waveguide layer by a direct electric field impression method in which an electric field is impressed on the substrate via the resist pattern; and

forming an electrode on each of the top face and bottom face of the optical waveguide layer.

9. A manufacturing method according to claim 8, wherein

the polarization inverted region forming step includes a first step of evenly generating a plurality of reversal nuclei by applying a spiked electric field;

and a second step of expanding domain walls of the reversal nuclei generated in the first step to the polarization inverted region by applying an electric field with a constant intensity for a predetermined length of time, the reversal nuclei being micro domains in which a spontaneous polarization of the ferroelectric material is inverted.

10. A manufacturing method according to claim 8, wherein

the opening of the resist pattern is formed to be smaller by a predetermined amount than a target shape of a cross section of the polarization inverted region along the thickness of the optical waveguide layer.

11. An optical deflector comprising:

a light source;

an electrooptic element according to of claim 1, to deflect incident light from the light source;

an optical system provided on at least one of an optical incidence side and an optical exit side of the electrooptic element; and

a driver to drive the light source and the electrooptic element.