Understanding Intrinsic Loss in Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Ring Resonators via Adiabatic Coupling
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| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Preprint |
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2026
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| _version_ | 1866912998585532416 |
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| author | Zhu, Xinrui Warner, Hana K. Song, Yunxiang Witt, Donald Loncar, Marko |
| author_facet | Zhu, Xinrui Warner, Hana K. Song, Yunxiang Witt, Donald Loncar, Marko |
| contents | Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) has emerged as a versatile integrated photonics platform, combining strong electro-optic and nonlinear effects. Among TFLN devices, ring resonators play a central role in filtering, modulation, and nonlinear optical processes. However, intrinsic loss, which ultimately limits ring performance, is most often summarized by single-valued metrics, and its statistical variability across resonances has received limited attention. Here, we show that intrinsic loss rates in monolithic TFLN ring resonators follow a statistical distribution, comprising a baseline loss and a tail arising from discrete loss events. This behavior is revealed by characterizing 2233 resonances, using an adiabatic waveguide-ring coupling architecture that selectively excites the fundamental mode and yields clean spectra in the ultra-high-Qi regime. We find the most probable intrinsic loss rate ki = 2 pi x 10.4 MHz, indicating operation in a low-loss regime comparable to state-of-the-art thick silicon nitride platforms. |
| format | Preprint |
| id |
arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2604_01922 |
| institution | arXiv |
| publishDate | 2026 |
| record_format | arxiv |
| spellingShingle | Understanding Intrinsic Loss in Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Ring Resonators via Adiabatic Coupling Zhu, Xinrui Warner, Hana K. Song, Yunxiang Witt, Donald Loncar, Marko Optics Thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) has emerged as a versatile integrated photonics platform, combining strong electro-optic and nonlinear effects. Among TFLN devices, ring resonators play a central role in filtering, modulation, and nonlinear optical processes. However, intrinsic loss, which ultimately limits ring performance, is most often summarized by single-valued metrics, and its statistical variability across resonances has received limited attention. Here, we show that intrinsic loss rates in monolithic TFLN ring resonators follow a statistical distribution, comprising a baseline loss and a tail arising from discrete loss events. This behavior is revealed by characterizing 2233 resonances, using an adiabatic waveguide-ring coupling architecture that selectively excites the fundamental mode and yields clean spectra in the ultra-high-Qi regime. We find the most probable intrinsic loss rate ki = 2 pi x 10.4 MHz, indicating operation in a low-loss regime comparable to state-of-the-art thick silicon nitride platforms. |
| title | Understanding Intrinsic Loss in Thin-Film Lithium Niobate Ring Resonators via Adiabatic Coupling |
| topic | Optics |
| url | https://arxiv.org/abs/2604.01922 |