Pulsed-biased higher speed (> 10 MHz @ 30 V, 100 ns pulse width) and DC-biased wider angle (105 mrads @ 410 V/mm) linear electro-optic (EO) deflection is reported in a thermally-controlled domain engineered (DE) ferroelectric (FE) potassium tantalate niobate [KTa1−xNb
x
O3, KTN] crystal. DE-FE KTN crystals can not only provide a higher transmittance and larger linear EO coefficient, but also enable higher speed (10X) and wider angle (2X) deflection than that of its paraelectric equivalent. The physical mechanism behind the optimization of injected space charge on high deflection angles at high speeds is also addressed. This significantly improves its use in megahertz EO applications.
UV-illuminated, paraelectric-phased potassium tantalate niobate (KTN) single crystals mitigate the beam deformation effects of femtosecond pulsed lasers in KTN deflectors. UV light illumination can control the amount of trapped charge present and minimize domain inversion in KTN deflectors, owing to its generated electron–hole pairs. This enables high beam quality deflection of fs pulsed lasers, with access to larger deflection angles, deflection speeds, and modulation switching ratios. These results enable the use of KTN deflectors in many fs pulsed laser applications and hasten the advancement of fs applications that require these deflection qualities.
In this letter we present the first study on the electrode surface topology enhanced KTN deflector, in which one of the electrodes contains sharp edges. In this case, the electric field can be enhanced near the sharp edge. This can increase the injected charges, which in turn results in the increased deflection angle for the space charge controlled KTN deflector. Both the conducted simulations and experimental investigations agreed well. In the experiments, the sharp edge structures were created by two methods: nanofabrication and roughing with a sandpaper. Both cases experimentally obtained increased deflection ranges. This study would be beneficial to many deflector applications because it can enlarge the deflection angle without the need to increase the driving voltage.
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