Fabrication and characterization of a third-order nonlinear organic–polymer composite glass waveguide: a self–phase modulator

Abstract

Composite organic-polymer glass optical waveguides in which coupling to the nonlinear organic-polymer layers was achieved by excitement of the underlying ion-exchanged glass waveguide and coupling of the light to the organic-polymer layer were fabricated and measured. A picosecond pulsed color center laser (λ = 1.5 µm) was used to measure the third-order optical susceptibility χ((3))(-w; w, -w, w) in an organic-dye-polymer composite glass waveguide with a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. For a squaryliumdye-doped poly(methyl methacrylate)-styrene-acrylonitrile matrix polymer layer, a composite χ((3)) of roughly 90, in units of (χLiNbO)(3)((3)), was measured.