TFLN channel waveguides of rib and strip type: Properties of guided modes

Straight dielectric waveguide channels made from slabs of thin-film lithium niobate (TFLN), or lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI), are investigated in the linear regime, for channels of rib and strip type with common trapezoidal cross sections, in Z-cut and X-cut samples at varying on-chip orientation. We clarify the theoretical basis for the waveguides with potentially non-diagonal core permittivity. Symmetry classes can be distinguished that differ in their consequences for potential modal degeneracy and polarization conversion. Our rigorous numerical analysis by means of a finite-element solver takes the anisotropy of the lithium niobate cores rigorously into account. We discuss extensive data for effective indices, polarization properties, and hybridization of guided modes, in single- and multimode channels. Scans over the waveguide width and orientation as primary parameters are complemented by a series of illustrations of vectorial mode profiles. These turn out to be essentially complex in cases of X-cut channels at non-crystal-axis-aligned orientations.