Domain-Engineered Magnesium-Oxide-Doped Lithium Niobate for Lidar-Based Remote Sensing

There are several frequency conversion applications associated with lidar-based remote sensing that would benefit from the use of high-quality, complex (i.e., chirped, multi-section, or otherwise modulated) domain-engineered magnesiumoxide- doped lithium niobate (MgO:LN). While congruently melting lithium niobate (CLN) has been explored in detail over the last decades, it is known to be highly susceptible to photorefractive damage, which has limited the achievable performance of some QPM-assisted (quasi phase matching) structures that are commercially available. The demand for high-performance engineered nonlinear optical (NLO) materials, in terms of power handling, efficiency, conversion bandwidth, and accessible wavelength range, has driven the development of high-quality, large-area wafers of MgO:LN. While commercial outlets for these materials exist, there is still a need to expand the achievable performance of these structures (i.e. larger aperture bulk structures, higher efficiency waveguide structures, and implementation of sophisticated poling designs that increase achievable conversion bandwidths).