ZnO/Mg_0.16Zn_0.84O (ZnO/MgZnO) films are fabricated on x-cut and z-cut LiNbO3 (LN) substrates by radio-frequency magnetron sputtering. High transparencies are confirmed by a spectrophotometer. X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra show that all the films are c-axis oriented. The waveguiding properties, as well as the refractive indices and thickness of the films are demonstrated and determined by prism coupling. Both transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) modes are measured at λ=0.633 µm and 1.539 µm, respectively. The waveguide loss is measured at λ=0.633 µm with a fiber probe technique. The experimental results show that high optical quality ZnO films can be obtained with MgZnO buffer layers.

The planar waveguide has been fabricated in a ${\mathrm{Nd:YVO}}_4$ crystal by 3.0 MeV ${\mathrm{Si}}^{+}$ ion implantation at a dose of ${\text{1×10}}^{15}\hspace{0.17em}{\mathrm{ions/cm}}^2$ at room temperature. The waveguide was characterized by the prism-coupling method. The dark modes are measured before and after the annealing at $\text{240\hspace{0.05em}°}\mathrm{C}$ for 60 min in air. The refractive index profile is reconstructed using reflectivity calculation method. It is found that relatively large positive change of ordinary refractive index happens in the guiding region, which is quite different from most of the observed ion-implanted waveguides. The TRIM’98 code is carried out to simulate the energy loss during the implantation in order to obtain a better understanding for the waveguide formation.