  We report on the fabrication of domain-reversed structures in LiNbO3 by means
of direct electron beam lithography at room temperature without any static
bias. The LiNbO3 crystals were chemically etched after the exposure of electron
beam and then, the patterns of domain inversion were characterized by atomic
force microscopy (AFM). In our experiment, an interesting phenomenon occurred
when the electron beam wrote a one-dimensional (1-D) grating on the negative
c-face: a two-dimensional (2-D) dotted array was observed on the positive c-
face, which is significant for its potential to produce 2-D and
three-dimensional photonic crystals. Furthermore, we also obtained 2-D
ferroelectric domain inversion in the whole LiNbO3 crystal by writing the 2-D
square pattern on the negative c-face. Such a structure may be utilized to
fabricate 2-D nonlinear photonic crystal. AFM demonstrates that a 2-D
domain-reversed structure has been achieved not only on the negative c-face of
the crystal, but also across the whole thickness of the crystal.
