Chemomechanical polishing of lithium niobate using alkaline silica sol and alkaline silica sol modified with hydrogendifluoride anion

Abstract

Lithium niobate undergoes a slow reaction with anhydrous HF at room temperature to give LiNbOF,, which is readily hydrolysed to give Nb205 as one product. This sequence of reactions is believed to be responsible for the superior performance of aqueous alkaline silica sol modified by the addition of [HFJfor the chemomechanical polishing of LiNbO, wafers, compared with silica sol alone.

Nanoindentation and structural studies of MgO-doped congruent LiNbO3 single crystals

“…For device application the grown crystals needs to be sliced and polished with good surface roughness, sometimes even ~1 nm [31]. Hence the utilisation of LN in high-performance devices requires that the grown single crystals have to be subjected to various machining processes including wire saw slicing from an ingot, mechanical polishing or lapping and chemical polishing, to produce a wafer free from cracks and subsurface damage [32,33,34].…”