The inherently large chemical stability of crystalline LiNbO3 has effectively precluded the use of standard photolithographic patterning techniques. We present a two-stage growth method for fabricating patterned crystalline LiNbO3 structures for photonic applications. The method uses atmospheric chemical vapor deposition (CVD) to produce an amorphous LiNbO3 film. The film can be patterned using conventional photolithography and rapidly etched ( > 5mum/min) with wet or dry chemical techniques. Alternatively, a standard lift-off process, using SiO2 as a masking material, can be used to produce a desired pattern. When grown on LiNbO3 substrates, a post-growth anneal converts the amorphous film to single-crystal LiNbO3. (C) 2003 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.