We demonstrate single-mode microdisk lasers in the telecom band with ultralow thresholds on erbium-ytterbium co-doped thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN). The active microdisk was fabricated with high-Q factors by photolithography-assisted chemomechanical etching. Thanks to the erbium-ytterbium co-doping providing high optical gain, the ultralow loss nanostructuring, and the excitation of high-Q coherent polygon modes, which suppresses multimode lasing and allows high spatial mode overlap between pump and lasing modes, single-mode laser emission operating at 1530 nm wavelength was observed with an ultralow threshold, under a 980-nm-band optical pump. The threshold was measured as low as 1 µW, which is one order of magnitude smaller than the best results previously reported in single-mode active TFLN microlasers. The conversion efficiency reaches 4.06 × 10^-3, which is also the highest value reported in single-mode active TFLN microlasers.

Whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microresonators can greatly enhance light–matter interaction, making them indispensable units for frequency conversion in nonlinear optics. Efficient nonlinear wave mixing in microresonators requires stringent simultaneous optical resonance and phase-matching conditions. Thus, it is challenging to achieve efficient frequency conversion over a broad bandwidth. Here, we demonstrate broadband second-harmonic generation (SHG) in the x-cut thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) microdisk with a quality factor above 10⁷ by applying the cyclic quasi-phase-matching (CQPM) mechanism, which is intrinsically applicable for broadband operation. Broadband SHG of continuous-wave laser with a maximum normalized conversion efficiency of ∼15%/mW is achieved with a bandwidth spanning over 100 nm in the telecommunication band. Furthermore, broadband SHG of femtosecond lasers, supercontinuum lasers, and amplified spontaneous emission in the telecommunication band is also experimentally observed. The work is beneficial for integrated nonlinear photonics devices like frequency converters and optical frequency comb generator based on second-order nonlinearity on the TFLN platform.

We propose and demonstrate an integrated microwave photonic sideband selector based on the thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform by integrating an electro-optic Mach–Zehnder modulator (MZM) and a thermo-optic tunable flat-top microring filter. The sideband selector has two functions: electro-optic modulation of wideband RF signal and sideband selection. The microwave photonic sideband selector supports processing RF signals up to 40 GHz, with undesired sidebands effectively suppressed by more than 25 dB. The demonstrated device shows great potential for TFLN integrated technology in microwave photonic applications, such as mixing and frequency measurement.

Lithium niobate is a material that exhibits outstanding electro-optic, nonlinear optical, acousto-optic, piezoelectric, photorefractive, and pyroelectric properties. A thin-film lithium niobate photonic crystal can confine light in the sub-wavelength scale, which is beneficial to the integration of the lithium niobate on-chip device. The commercialization of the lithium niobate on insulator gives birth to the emergence of high-quality lithium niobate photonic crystals. In order to provide guidance to the research of lithium niobate photonic crystal devices, recent progress about fabrication, characterization, and applications of the thin-film lithium niobate photonic crystal is reviewed. The performance parameters of the different devices are compared.

Achieving spatiotemporal control of light at high speeds presents immense possibilities for various applications in communication, computation, metrology, and sensing. The integration of subwavelength metasurfaces and optical waveguides offers a promising approach to manipulate light across multiple degrees of freedom at high speed in compact photonic integrated circuit (PIC) devices. Here, we demonstrate a gigahertz-rate-switchable wavefront shaping by integrating metasurface, lithium niobate on insulator photonic waveguides, and electrodes within a PIC device. As proofs of concept, we showcase the generation of a focus beam with reconfigurable arbitrary polarizations, switchable focusing with lateral focal positions and focal length, orbital angular momentum light beams as well as Bessel beams. Our measurements indicate modulation speeds of up to the gigahertz rate. This integrated platform offers a versatile and efficient means of controlling the light field at high speed within a compact system, paving the way for potential applications in optical communication, computation, sensing, and imaging.

Inverse design focuses on identifying photonic structures to optimize the performance of photonic devices. Conventional scalar-based inverse design approaches are insufficient to design photonic devices of anisotropic materials such as lithium niobate (LN). To the best of our knowledge, this work proposes for the first time the inverse design method for anisotropic materials to optimize the structure of anisotropic-material based photonics devices. Specifically, the orientation dependent properties of anisotropic materials are included in the adjoint method, which provides a more precise prediction of light propagation within such materials. The proposed method is used to design ultra-compact wavelength division demultiplexers in the X-cut thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN) platform. By benchmarking the device performances of our method with those of classical scalar-based inverse design, we demonstrate that this method properly addresses the critical issue of material anisotropy in the X-cut TFLN platform. This proposed method fills the gap of inverse design of anisotropic materials based photonic devices, which finds prominent applications in TFLN platforms and other anisotropic-material based photonic integration platforms.