Epitaxial Growth of LiNbO₃ Films on Sapphire Substrates by Excimer Laser Ablation Method and Their Surface Acoustic Wave Properties

Epitaxial films of LiNbO 3 have been formed on (001), (110) and (012) sapphire substrates using an excimer-laser ablation technique. The orientation relationships are LiNbO 3 (001)//sapphire(001), LiNbO 3 (001)//sapphire(110) and LiNbO 3 (100)//sapphire(012). LiNbO 3 (110) is also obtained on (110) sapphire under the fast-deposition condition. We have fabricated surface acoustic wave (SAW) filters on the LiNbO 3 films and evaluated the properties.