High-precision measurement of a propagation loss of low-loss single-mode optical waveguides on lithium niobate on insulator

Recently, low-loss (0.027 dB/cm) ridge waveguides have been demonstrated on lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) by laser patterning followed by chemo-mechanical polishing. However, the fabricated waveguide supports multi-mode propagation due to the relatively large cross-sectional dimensions. Here, we report conversion of the multi-mode LNOI waveguides into single mode waveguides with a mode field size of ~2.5 μm with a cladding layer of Ta2O5. The propagation loss of the single mode waveguide is measured to be ~0.042 dB/cm. Most importantly, we show that this fabrication approach has allowed to fabricate meter-length long LNOI single mode waveguides of low propagation loss.