Low-loss, single-mode, organic polymer waveguides utilizing refractive index tailoring

Abstract

Low-loss, single-mode optical waveguides have been fabricated from photopolymerizable acrylic monomers. The material system consists of a low-index cladding resin and a high-index core resin. The two resins are miscible so that precise control over the refractive index can be obtained. This allows the fabrication of single-mode waveguides with specific cross-sectional dimensions. One advantage of this is the ability to fabricate waveguides with high coupling efficiencies to other devices such as optical fiber or semiconductor lasers. The materials adhere to a wide variety of substrates and exhibit average waveguide losses of 0.56 dB/cm at 1300 nm for single-mode waveguides. Details of the fabrication procedure, index of refraction tailoring technique, and waveguide loss data are presented.