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We investigate the dependence of photonic waveguide propagation loss on the thickness of the buried oxide layer in Y-cut lithium niobate on insulator substrate to identify trade-offs between optical losses and electromechanical coupling of surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices for acousto-optic applications. Simulations show that a thicker oxide layer reduces the waveguide loss but lowers the electromechanical coupling coefficient of the SAW device. Optical racetrack resonators with different lengths were fabricated by argon plasma etching to experimentally extract waveguide losses. By increasing the thickness of the oxide layer from 1 µm to 2 µm, propagation loss of 2 µm (1 µm) wide waveguide was reduced from 1.85 dB/cm (3 dB/cm) to as low as 0.37 dB/cm (0.77 dB/cm), and, resonators with quality factor greater than 1 million were demonstrated. An oxide thickness of approximately 1.5 µm is sufficient to significantly reduce propagation loss due to leakage into the substrate and simultaneously attain good electromechanical coupling in acoustic devices. This work not only provides insights on the design and realization of low-loss photonic waveguides in lithium niobate, but most importantly offers experimental evidence on how the oxide thickness directly impacts losses and guides its selection for the synthesis of highperformance acousto-optic devices in Y-cut lithium niobate on insulator.

An Acousto-Optic Gyroscope (AOG) consisting of a photonic integrated device embedded into two inherently matched piezoelectric surface acoustic wave (SAW) resonators sharing the same acoustic cavity is presented. This constitutes the first demonstration of a micromachined strain-based optomechanical gyroscope that uses the effective index of the optical waveguide due to the acousto-optic effect rather than conventional displacement sensing. The theoretical analysis comparing various photonic phase sensing techniques is presented and verified experimentally for the cases based on a Mach-Zehnder interferometer, as well as a racetrack resonator. This first prototype integrates acoustic and photonic components on the same lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) substrate and constitutes the first proof of concept demonstration of the AOG. This approach enables the development of a new class of micromachined gyroscopes that combines the advantages of both conventional microscale vibrating gyroscopes and optical gyroscopes.

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Cetuximab combined with irinotecan when administered biweekly is safe and effective for treatment of pretreated elderly patients with mCRC.