Buried ion-exchanged glass waveguides featuring low birefringence with a broad range of waveguide widths

Sanna E. Yliniemi; Brian R. West; Timo T. Aalto; Pratheepan Madasamy; Nasser Peyghambarian; Seppo Honkanen

doi:10.1117/12.548227

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18 August 2004 Buried ion-exchanged glass waveguides featuring low birefringence with a broad range of waveguide widths

Sanna E. Yliniemi, Brian R. West, Timo T. Aalto, Pratheepan Madasamy, Nasser Peyghambarian, Seppo Honkanen

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Proceedings Volume 5451, Integrated Optics and Photonic Integrated Circuits; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.548227
Event: Photonics Europe, 2004, Strasbourg, France

Abstract

Optical communications networks require integrated photonic components with negligible polarization dependence, which typically means that the waveguides must feature very low birefringence. Recent studies have shown that waveguides with low birefringence can be obtained, e.g., by using silica on Si waveguides and by buried ion-exchanged glass waveguides. However, many integrated photonic circuits consist of waveguides with varying widths. Therefore, low birefringence is consequently required for waveguides having different widths. This is a difficult task for most waveguide fabrication technologies. In this paper we present theoretical and experimental results on waveguide birefringence for buried silver ion-exchanged glass waveguides. We show that the waveguide birefringence is on the order of 10-6 for waveguide mask opening widths ranging from 2 to 9 μm. The measured values are in good agreement with the values calculated with our modeling software for ion-exchanged glass waveguides. This unique feature of ion-exchanged waveguides may be of significant importance in a wide variety of integrated photonic circuits requiring polarization independent operation.

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Sanna E. Yliniemi, Brian R. West, Timo T. Aalto, Pratheepan Madasamy, Nasser Peyghambarian, and Seppo Honkanen "Buried ion-exchanged glass waveguides featuring low birefringence with a broad range of waveguide widths", Proc. SPIE 5451, Integrated Optics and Photonic Integrated Circuits, (18 August 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.548227

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