Laser-induced fracturing: an alternative to mechanical polishing and patterning of LiNbO/sub 3/ integrated optics chips

We report a method for cutting z-oriented LiNbO/sub 3/ substrates into nearly arbitrary shapes using a pulsed UV laser to controllably fracture the crystal. The end surfaces appear optically smooth. Ti-diffused waveguides terminated using this technique have fiber-waveguide-fiber insertion losses which are equal to the lowest values reported for waveguide end faces prepared using conventional mechanical polishing techniques.