Fabrication of PBG structures by electron beam bombardment on LiNbO/sub 3/

Summary form only given. Photonic band gap (PBG) structures consist in gratings which have a periodic and high index modulation contrast. Their interest is now well known to make filters, waveguides, micro-resonators, superprisms, etc. This paper is devoted to the achievement of PBG structures in LiNbO/sub 3/, well known for its interesting linear and nonlinear optical properties. As the lithium niobate is a ferroelectric crystal, its spontaneous polarisation can be reversed. Among the different methods already developed for ferroelectric domain inversion, electron beam (EB) bombardment is one of the sole technique able to operate at a submicrometer scale. EB irradiation has been performed by a scanning electron microscope which permitted to scan the beam or to move it from point to point.