Recent advances within the realization of silica-on-silicon planar waveguide circuitry are presented. This ranges from the production methods for planar waveguides, including a novel method based on the utilization of focused UV-laser beams for direct waveguide imprinting, to the functionalities that are embedded into the glass materials and waveguide circuitry. The latter includes e.g. optical functions that are realized utilizing phase and amplitude of and resonance conditions for light in waveguide circuitry. We also describe the realization and use of gratings in waveguides.
Furthermore, we discuss doping of glass materials used to obtain e.g. amplifiers, lasers, and the pursuit to obtain highly non-linear materials in order to realize purely glass-based switches, modulators and wavelength converters.
A three-layer silica structure was grown on a 4-inch silicon wafer using plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition. The 2.5 micrometers thick core layer is surrounded by 12 micrometers thick buffer and cladding layers. An aluminum layer, deposited on the cladding glass and patterned with the desired waveguide structures, serves as a mask for the UV exposure. An excimer laser operating on ArF giving an energy of 60 mJ/pulse was used to expose the sample to the total fluence of 4800 J/cm2 of 193 nm light. The rise in refractive index is estimated to be around 3 - 10-3 without hydrogen loading or any other kind of sensitization. The Y-splitters were evaluated on an automatic alignment setup using a semiconductor laser operating at 1542 nm. The splitting ratio was measured to be 1:1 at 1542 nm and 1:0.95 at 1310 nm. We measured the loss in the splitter to be 5 dB (fiber to fiberneglecting the splitting). The minimum coupling loss from fiber to waveguide was theoretically calculated to be 1.1 dB, leaving the propagation loss to be smaller than 2.8 dB/cm. The same value was measured for straight waveguides next to the couplers, indicating no measurable excess loss induced by the Y-splitters.
Conference Committee Involvement (1)
Integrated Optics: Devices, Materials, and Technologies VIII
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