Optical properties of K9 glass waveguides fabricated by using carbon-ion implantation

Abstract

K9 glass is a material with promising properties that make it attractive for optical devices. Ion implantation is a powerful technique to form waveguides with controllable depth and refractive index profile. In this work, optical planar waveguide structures were fabricated in K9 glasses by using 6.0-MeV C3+-ion implantation with a fluence of 1.0 × 1015 ions/cm2. The effective refractive indices of the guided modes were measured by using a prism-coupling system. The refractive index change in the ion-irradiated region was simulated by using the intensity calculation method. The modal intensity profile of the waveguide was calculated and measured by using the finite difference beam propagation method and the end-face coupling technique, respectively. The transmission spectra before and after the implantation showed that the main absorption band was not influenced by the low fluence dopants. The optical properties of the carbon-implanted K9 glass waveguides show promise for use as integrated photonic devices.