High performance fully etched isotropic microring resonators in thin-film lithium niobate on insulator platform

We present our design, fabrication, and experimental results for very high-performance isotropic microring resonators with small radii (˜ 30 µm) based on single-mode strip waveguides and transverse magnetic (TM) polarization in a fully etched lithium niobate (Z-cut) thin-film on insulator. The loss of the devices is predicted to be < 10 dB/cm, and is measured to be ˜ 7 dB/cm. The measured optical responses of microring resonators exhibit an extinction of ˜ 25 dB (close to critical coupling), a 3 dB optical bandwidth of 49 pm (˜ 6 GHz) for all-pass structures, an extinction of ˜ 10 dB for add-drop structures, and a free spectral range of ˜ 5.26 nm, all of which are in excellent agreement with the design. This work is the first step towards ultra-compact and fully isotropic optical modulators in thin-film lithium niobate on insulator.