Develop-Free Solgel Fabrication of Low-Loss Embedded Channel Waveguide Array

Author

He, Anhe ; He, Miao ; Li, Shuti ; Xing, Haiying ; Wang, Wenjie ; Li, Yang

Author_Institution

Inst. of Optoelectron. Mater. & Technol., South China Normal Univ., Guangzhou, China

Volume

28

Issue

5

fYear

2010

fDate

3/1/2010 12:00:00 AM

Firstpage

735

Lastpage

738

Abstract

We report on the fabrication of a 4-channel embedded waveguide array by a develop-free solgel process, adopted for the first time in waveguide fabrication to improve the sidewall roughness and simplify the fabrication procedures. A kind of novel hybrid HfO₂/SiO₂ solgel material, which can be used to form a crack-free thick film by a single spin-coating, was prepared to construct waveguide core and cladding, whose refractive index can be accurately set by adjusting ultraviolet (UV) exposure time. The average propagation losses of the fabricated single-mode channel waveguides were measured as low as 0.19 ?? 0.02 dB/cm and 0.22 ?? 0.03 dB/cm at a wavelength of 1.55 ??m for TE and TM polarizations, respectively.

Keywords

light polarisation; light propagation; optical arrays; optical design techniques; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical materials; optical waveguides; organic-inorganic hybrid materials; refractive index; sol-gel processing; spin coating; surface roughness; ultraviolet radiation effects; HfO₂-SiO₂; Si; core-cladding sidewall roughness; crack-free thick film; develop-free solgel fabrication; low-loss embedded channel waveguide array; organic-inorganic solgel material; propagation losses; refractive index; single spin-coating; transverse electric polarisation; transverse magnetic polarisation; ultraviolet exposure time; wavelength 1.55 mum; Optical propagation; optical waveguides; solgel;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Lightwave Technology, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

0733-8724

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JLT.2009.2037931

Filename

5345861