The excellent optical and unique material properties of lithium niobate have long established it as a prevailing photonic material, especially for the long‐haul telecom modulator and wavelength‐converter applications. However, conventional lithium niobate optical waveguides are bulky, hence large‐scale photonic circuit implementations are impeded and high power requirements are imposed. To address these shortcomings, thin‐film lithium niobate technology has been a topic of intense research in the last few years and a plethora of ultracompact devices with significantly superior performances than the conventional counterparts have been demonstrated. These efforts have rejuvenated lithium niobate for novel electro‐, nonlinear‐, and quantum‐optic applications. Herein, the most recent advancements of this booming field are summarized and a perspective for future directions is given.

中文翻译：

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振兴多功能光子材料：薄膜铌酸锂

铌酸锂具有出色的光学性能和独特的材料性能，长期以来已将其确立为一种流行的光子材料，尤其是在长途电信调制器和波长转换器应用中。然而，传统的铌酸锂光波导体积庞大，因此阻碍了大规模光子电路的实现，并提出了高功率要求。为了解决这些缺点，薄膜铌酸锂技术在过去几年中一直是研究的热点，并且已经证明了许多超紧凑设备，它们的性能明显优于传统同类产品。这些努力使铌酸锂重获新生，用于新型电，非线性和量子光学应用。在这里