Fabrication of Silica-Based Glass Optical Waveguide by UV Beam Scanning

Abstract

UV induced refractive index increase, the photosensitivity, in Ge-doped silica glass has been utilized for the fabrication of fiber Bragg gratings and long period fiber gratings. Recently, this phenomenon has also been applied to the fabrication of optical channel waveguides in order to achieve cost efficiency and fabrication flexibility. In this work, the fabrication of various optical waveguides by UV beam scanning is demonstrated. 10-mm-long straight optical waveguides and a Y-Branch waveguide with a branching ratio of nearly 50% are realized. We also propose and demonstrate a technique for the simultaneous fabrication of an optical waveguide and a Bragg grating by scanning UV beam through a phase mask.