Physics-Informed Surrogate for Sb2S3 Dispersion Trimming in Thin-Film Lithium Niobate

Abstract

A film-thickness error of 8 nm, within the tolerance of commercial thin-film lithium niobate wafers, shifts the group-velocity dispersion $β_2$ at 1550 nm by about 28 ps$^2$ km$^{-1}$. We study numerically whether a segmented, non-volatile phase-change cladding can correct this error after fabrication. In mode solves of 3012 geometries, Sb$_2$S$_3$ switches $β_2$ by a median of 181 ps$^2$ km$^{-1}$ at a 40 nm strip thickness with no material absorption under the adopted optical constants, whereas Sb$_2$Se$_3$ reaches a comparable contrast at a median modal loss of 5.6 dB cm$^{-1}$. Because phase adds along the guide, four independently switched binary segments reach a two-dimensional region of the $(β_2,β_3)$ plane; eigenmode expansion supports this description at the junctions. Full-wave solves at 65 die geometries show that the segment states move with the die error, so the bit pattern is chosen from a per-die model: a spectral surrogate constrained by exact identities of the lossless Maxwell problem. Its accuracy within the training domain is similar to that of unconstrained baselines; it keeps $β_2$ and $β_3$ consistent, and its error at an unseen film thickness is 8.3 rather than 13.0 ps$^2$ km$^{-1}$. With a bare test ring and a second ring carrying a crystalline strip already on the mask, 96.8% of the dies are trimmed into $\pm25$ ps$^2$ km$^{-1}$, scored on full-wave solutions. A thermal model gives a candidate write window for a 532 nm beam.