Engineering high Pockels coefficients in thin-film strontium titanate for cryogenic quantum electro-optic applications
Pockels materials are notable for their strong electro-optic interaction and rapid response times and are therefore used extensively in optical communications. However, at cryogenic temperatures, Pockels coefficients are reduced in many materials optimized for room-temperature operation, which is a major hurdle for emerging quantum technologies. Here, we show that strontium titanate (SrTiO<sub>3</sub>) can be engineered to exhibit a Pockels coefficient of 345 picometers per volt at 20 hertz at cryogenic temperatures, a value twice as high as any other thin-film electro-optic material. By adjusting the stoichiometry, we were able to increase the Curie temperature and realize a ferroelectric phase yielding a high Pockels coefficient, so far with limited optical losses of decibels per centimeter. Our findings position SrTiO<sub>3</sub> as a promising material for cryogenic quantum photonics applications.
Authors
- Kamal Brahim (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8687-8302)
- Christian Haffner (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8947-5293)
- Sandeep Seema Saseendran (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8556-0821)
- Clément Merckling (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-3084-2543)
- Stefanie Sergeant (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9923-0903)
- Marina Baryshnikova (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5945-4459)
- Thomas Nuytten (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5921-6928)
- Paola Favia
- Anja Ulrich (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7767-6039)
- Kristiaan De Greve (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-1314-9715)
- Kasper Van Gasse (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4286-585X)
- Ahmed E. Khalil (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7971-8781)
- Bart Kuyken (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8745-7833)
- Michiel Debaets (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0005-5853-9548)
- Andries Boelen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5380-7348)
- Yishu Huang (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4314-4288)
- Conglin Sun (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0009-0009-7307-5621)
Institutions
- HOGENT University of Applied Sciences and Arts (BE)
- Ghent University (BE)
- IMEC (BE)
- KU Leuven (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2025-10-23
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adx3741
- Citations
- 7
- Primary Topic
- Ferroelectric and Piezoelectric Materials
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 3.62