Modeling temperature, frequency, and strain effects on the linear electro-optic coefficients of ferroelectric oxides

Abstract

An electro-optic modulator offers the function of modulating the propagation of light in a material with an electric field and enables a seamless connection between electronics-based computing and photonics-based communication. The search for materials with large electro-optic coefficients and low optical loss is critical to increase the efficiency and minimize the size of electro-optic devices. We present a semi-empirical method to compute the electro-optic coefficients of ferroelectric materials by combining first-principles density-functional theory calculations with Landau–Devonshire phenomenological modeling. We apply the method to study the electro-optic constants, also called Pockels coefficients, of three paradigmatic ferroelectric oxides: BaTiO3, LiNbO3, and LiTaO3. We present their temperature-, frequency-, and strain-dependent electro-optic tensors calculated using our method. The predicted electro-optic constants agree with the experimental results, where available, and provide benchmarks for experimental verification.

Document Details

Document Type
Pub Defense Publication
Publication Date
Apr 25, 2022
Source ID
10.1063/5.0090072

Entities

People

  • Guodong Ren
  • Jayakanth Ravichandran
  • Rohan Mishra
  • Tengfei Cao
  • Yang Liu

Organizations

  • Air Force Office of Scientific Research
  • Army Research Office
  • National Science Foundation
  • University of Southern California
  • Washington University in St. Louis

Tags

Readers

  • Integrated Circuit Design and Technology.
  • Optical Physics and Photonics.
  • Quantum Chemistry

Technology Areas

  • Microelectronics