Ytterbium-implanted photonic resonators based on thin film lithium niobate

We introduce our design, simulation, and fabrication for cm-long waveguides and micro-ring resonators based on fully-etched thin-film lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) incorporated with rare earth ions. We implant ytterbium ions (Yb 3 +) into the crystalline host and study their optical properties at 4 K temperature. We measure an intrinsic optical quality factor of higher than 2 × 10 6 after postimplantation annealing. We characterize the photoluminescence spectrum, lifetime, and absorption of Yb 3 + ions. Incorporation of rare earth ions into LNOI as a crystalline and nonlinear photonic element may enable the development of multi-functional quantum photonic devices capable of generating, transducing, manipulating, and storing of quantum optical information.