lithium niobate

noun

lithium ni·​o·​bate

-ˈnī-ə-ˌbāt

: a crystalline material LiNbO₃ whose physical properties change in response to pressure or the presence of an electric field and which is used in fiber optics and as a synthetic gemstone

Examples of lithium niobate in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Frequency conversion allows one color of light to be converted into another, but conventional systems often depend on materials such as lithium niobate or gallium arsenide and can be difficult to make compact and scalable. — Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 4 Sep. 2026

However, other materials, such as lithium niobate and indium phosphide, should be able to exceed that. — IEEE Spectrum, 25 Mar. 2025

Transitioning to chip-scale implementations using materials like thin-film lithium niobate could enable compact, scalable systems. — The Physics Arxiv Blog, Discover Magazine, 16 Jan. 2025

Components And Markets One material that has helped photonics acquire nonlinearity is lithium niobate, a crystal (specifically, a synthetic salt) that has been long and widely used for modulating light signals in optical communication systems. — Kazuhiro Gomi, Forbes, 10 Sep. 2024

Word History

First Known Use

1966, in the meaning defined above