The Optical Bandgap of Lithium Niobate (LiNbO3) and Its Dependence with Temperature
Open accessAbstract
Notwithstanding the great scientific−technological interest in lithium niobate (LiNbO3), its optical bandgap Egap has been subject of intense discussion. So far, the literature exhibits different Egap values spanning over about 2 eV and comprises a mixture of compositions, structures, and theoretical methods − not always clearly indicated or discussed. In view of that, this work presents a thorough investigation of the Egap (at room-temperature and in the ∼80–800 K temperature range) of the congruent ferroelectric LiNbO3 (Z-cut) single crystal.
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LiTaO3 shows enhanced chemical stability compared to LN by replacing Nb atoms with Ta atoms, and has a wider bandgap of 3.93 eV, facilitating nonlinear optical conversion in the visible and UV regions.
“This material shows an enhanced chemical stability by simply replacing the Nb atoms with Ta atoms [184], as well as a wider bandgap (3.93 eV [185]), facilitating nonlinear optical conversion in the Vis and UV regions [186].”
From Metal Oxide Thin Films for Advanced Photonic Applications (2026) · cites this paper as [185]
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- Authors
- Zanatta, A. R.
- Affiliations
- Universidade de São Paulo (BR)
- Corresponding author
- Zanatta, A.R.
- ORCID
- Zanatta, A.R.
- Venue
- Results in Physics
- Publisher
- Elsevier BV
- Published
- 2022-08
- Volume
- 39
- Pages
- 105736
- ISSN
- 2211-3797 (ISSN-L)
- OpenAlex
- W4282839325
- Cited by
- 49
- References
- 16
- Citations by year
- 2026: 12 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 18 · 2023: 7 · 2022: 1
- FWCI
- 3.76
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- gold
- doi.org
- Licence
- Locations
- Results in Physics (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-nd)
- DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) (submittedVersion, cc-by-sa)
- Funders
- Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo
- Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Cientifico e Tecnologico (304569/2021-6)
- Topics
- Physical Sciences › Physics and Astronomy › Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics › Photorefractive and Nonlinear Optics
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials
- Physical Sciences › Materials Science › Materials Chemistry › Solid-state spectroscopy and crystallography
- Keywords
- lithium niobate, optical band gap, temperature dependence, ferroelectric crystals, low-temperature optical properties
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