AbstractLithium niobate (LiNbO3) on insulator (LNOI) is a promising material platform for integrated photonics due to single crystal LiNbO3 film’s wide transparent window, high refractive index, and high second-order nonlinearity. Based on LNOI, the fast-developing ridge-waveguide fabrication techniques enabled various structures, devices, systems, and applications. We review the basic structures including waveguides, cavities, periodically poled LiNbO3, and couplers, along with their fabrication methods and optical properties. Treating those basic structures as building blocks, we review several integrated devices including electro-optic modulators, nonlinear optical devices, and optical frequency combs with each device’s operating mechanism, design principle and methodology, and performance metrics. Starting from these integrated devices, we review how integrated LNOI devices boost the performance of LiNbO3’s traditional applications in optical communications and data center, integrated microwave photonics, and quantum optics. Beyond those traditional applications, we also review integrated LNOI devices’ novel applications in metrology including ranging system and frequency comb spectroscopy. Finally, we envision integrated LNOI photonics’ potential in revolutionizing nonlinear and quantum optics, optical computing and signal processing, and devices in ultraviolet, visible, and mid-infrared regimes. Beyond this outlook, we discuss the challenges in integrated LNOI photonics and the potential solutions.

Thin‐film lithium niobate (TFLN) has been widely used in electro‐optic modulators, acoustic‐–optic modulators, electro‐optic frequency combs, and nonlinear wavelength converters owing to the excellent optical properties of lithium niobate. The performance of these devices is highly dependent on the fabrication quality of TFLN. Although state‐of‐the‐art TFLN microrings with an intrinsic quality factor (Q‐factor) exceeding 1 × 107 have been realized by inductively coupled plasma–reactive ion etching (ICP‐RIE) and chemical mechanical polishing (CMP), ICP‐RIE has moderate throughput, moderate reproducibility, and high cost in etching TFLN, while CMP features moderate throughput and low cost in etching TFLN. Here, a wet etching method for TFLN, leading to the fabrication of a micro‐racetrack with an intrinsic Q‐factor of over 9.27 × 106 is developed. The suitability of this method to fabricate a narrow coupling gap between the bus waveguide and microring enables the coupling conditions of the microring to be customized. This method features a high throughput, a high reproducibility, and a low cost in etching TFLN, showing the potential to boost the mass production of integrated LN photonic devices with high fidelity and affordability dramatically.

Modern communications and microwave photonics require compact electro‐optic modulators with ultrahigh bandwidth and low power consumption. These requirements can be satisfied by integrated lithium–niobate electro‐optic modulators with high bandwidth and low power consumption. However, most integrated lithium–niobate modulators cannot achieve a good balance between an ultracompact size and a high modulation bandwidth. These challenges are overcome by designing an integrated lithium–niobate periodic dielectric waveguide modulator, featuring a compact modulation length of 87.4 μm, a theoretical modulation bandwidth over 600 GHz, a voltage‐length product of 0.0874 V cm, and a high sideband suppression ratio up to 36.1 dB. These performances are achieved by taking advantage of a capacitor configuration consisting of a nonresonant periodic dielectric waveguides sandwiched between two indium tin oxide (ITO) electrodes. This design provides an ultrabroadband and compact solution to next‐generation communications and microwave photonics.

Lithium Niobate Microrings In article number 2208113, Rongjin Zhuang, Yang Li, and co‐workers develop a wet‐etching method for thin film lithium niobate (TFLN), leading to the fabrication of microrings with an intrinsic quality factor over 9 million. This method features high throughput, high reproducibility, and low cost in etching TFLN, showing the potential to boost the mass production of integrated TFLN devices with high fidelity and affordability dramatically.

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