High-Efficiency Acousto-Optic Modulation on Non-Suspended Thin-Film Lithium Tantalate
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , , , , , , , , |
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| Formato: | Preprint |
| Publicado: |
2026
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| _version_ | 1866914435960930304 |
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| author | Zhou, Weiran Wang, Chengli Wang, Xuqiang Chen, Bowen Cai, Jiachen Yang, Tianyao Sui, Dongchen Ke, Xinjian Chen, Yang Wang, Xudong Yi, Ailun Zhang, Shibin Zuo, Chengjie Ou, Xin |
| author_facet | Zhou, Weiran Wang, Chengli Wang, Xuqiang Chen, Bowen Cai, Jiachen Yang, Tianyao Sui, Dongchen Ke, Xinjian Chen, Yang Wang, Xudong Yi, Ailun Zhang, Shibin Zuo, Chengjie Ou, Xin |
| contents | Acousto-optic (AO) interactions provide a powerful interface between the microwave and optical domains, enabling functionalities such as optical switching, non-reciprocal propagation and efficient microwave-to-optical transduction. Integrated demonstrations to date have largely relied on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), which offers strong piezoelectric response and low optical loss performance. Here, we establish lithium tantalate on insulator (LTOI) as a scalable platform for integrated acousto-optics. LTOI combines intrinsically low birefringence, high optical damage threshold, strong electro-optic and Kerr nonlinearities, and superior acoustic quality factors with a mature high-volume manufacturing base. We demonstrate for the first time acousto-optic modulation on the LTOI platform. By exploiting the anisotropy of surface acoustic waves, we reveal a direct correlation between acousto-optic modulation efficiency and the electromechanical coupling coefficient of lithium tantalate. In particular, acoustic excitation along the crystal Z-axis enhances the higher-order R1 mode, yielding the highest modulation efficiency. Our Mach-Zehnder interferometers achieve a modulation efficiency of 0.68 $\mathrm{\mathbf{V \cdot cm}}$, while racetrack resonators reach 0.022 $\mathrm{\mathbf{V \cdot cm}}$ -representing, to the best of our knowledge, the lowest $\mathrm{V_πL}$ demonstrated in non-suspended ferroelectric platforms. This record performance directly enables microwave-to-optical conversion without suspended structures, establishing LTOI as a robust and scalable platform for integrated acousto-optics with broad applications in communications, signal processing, and quantum information technologies. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_00374 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | High-Efficiency Acousto-Optic Modulation on Non-Suspended Thin-Film Lithium Tantalate Zhou, Weiran Wang, Chengli Wang, Xuqiang Chen, Bowen Cai, Jiachen Yang, Tianyao Sui, Dongchen Ke, Xinjian Chen, Yang Wang, Xudong Yi, Ailun Zhang, Shibin Zuo, Chengjie Ou, Xin Optics Acousto-optic (AO) interactions provide a powerful interface between the microwave and optical domains, enabling functionalities such as optical switching, non-reciprocal propagation and efficient microwave-to-optical transduction. Integrated demonstrations to date have largely relied on thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), which offers strong piezoelectric response and low optical loss performance. Here, we establish lithium tantalate on insulator (LTOI) as a scalable platform for integrated acousto-optics. LTOI combines intrinsically low birefringence, high optical damage threshold, strong electro-optic and Kerr nonlinearities, and superior acoustic quality factors with a mature high-volume manufacturing base. We demonstrate for the first time acousto-optic modulation on the LTOI platform. By exploiting the anisotropy of surface acoustic waves, we reveal a direct correlation between acousto-optic modulation efficiency and the electromechanical coupling coefficient of lithium tantalate. In particular, acoustic excitation along the crystal Z-axis enhances the higher-order R1 mode, yielding the highest modulation efficiency. Our Mach-Zehnder interferometers achieve a modulation efficiency of 0.68 $\mathrm{\mathbf{V \cdot cm}}$, while racetrack resonators reach 0.022 $\mathrm{\mathbf{V \cdot cm}}$ -representing, to the best of our knowledge, the lowest $\mathrm{V_πL}$ demonstrated in non-suspended ferroelectric platforms. This record performance directly enables microwave-to-optical conversion without suspended structures, establishing LTOI as a robust and scalable platform for integrated acousto-optics with broad applications in communications, signal processing, and quantum information technologies. |
| title | High-Efficiency Acousto-Optic Modulation on Non-Suspended Thin-Film Lithium Tantalate |
| topic | Optics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.00374 |