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Investigations on Integrated Optical Interference Couplers in PMMA for Visible and Infrared Range Fabricated by “Direct Writing” Excimer Laser Radiation

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Published/Copyright: June 30, 2017
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Journal of Optical Communications
From the journal Journal of Optical Communications Volume 40 Issue 2

Abstract

Optical waveguides were generated in Polymethylmethacrylate using “direct” laser and contact mask structuring. Excimer laser radiation (248 nm) produced a local refractive index increase thereby achieving light guiding in waveguides with widths from 2 to 15 μm. The near field output images were analyzed using visible and infrared laser light. The mode fields of single mode structures were evaluated to elaborate numerically the parameters of the index profile. An index increase up to 0.01 could be achieved using laser pulses at fluences below 0.15J/cm2. Thus it was possible to design interference couplers of 5 μm waveguides width for the visible (635 nm to 670 nm) as well as for the infrared range at 1550 nm. The coupling properties as a function of the waveguide separation and the wavelength is investigated and found compatible with numerical simulations for the structure design. The presented approach allows for designing and fabricating single mode couplers in an efficient and simple manner.

Keywords: optical waveguides; PMMA; excimer laser applications; interference couplers

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Malte Ennen for technical assistance.

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Received: 2017-04-14
Accepted: 2017-06-08
Published Online: 2017-06-30
Published in Print: 2019-03-26

© 2019 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

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https://doi.org/10.1515/joc-2017-0063
Keywords for this article
optical waveguides; PMMA; excimer laser applications; interference couplers

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  3. Performance Evaluation of Proposed WDM Optical Link Using EDFA and FBG Combination
  4. PAPR Reduction in OFDM System Using Hybrid OICF and Phase Rotation Scheme
  5. Performance Analysis of 4×10 Gbps OFDM-PON System Over ROF Link
  6. Design of Optical SR Latch and Flip-Flop Using Electro-Optic Effect Inside Lithium–Niobate-Based Mach–Zehnder Interferometers
  7. Design of Photonic Crystal-Based Demultiplexer with High-Quality Factor for DWDM Applications
  8. Novel Architecture of PON based Two-dimensional Pre-coding
  9. Empirical Evaluation of 4 QAM and 4 PSK in OFDM-based Inter-Satellite Communication System
  10. Investigations on Integrated Optical Interference Couplers in PMMA for Visible and Infrared Range Fabricated by “Direct Writing” Excimer Laser Radiation
  11. Performance of a Direct-Detection Spot Mode Division Multiplexing in Multimode Fiber
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