Preparation of rib channel waveguides on polymer in electric field

Abstract

Micro-sized patterns were created on oligomer (Su-8) films by the effect of external electric field, perpendicular to the film surface. Structures with varying parameters were prepared and the growth of continuous or dot-like structures was observed. The mechanism dominating the structure growth was examined and found to be a function of experimental conditions. The dependence of the form and the size of the created patterns on the intensity of the electric field, exposure time and initial distance between mask and polymer surface was investigated. Waveguiding properties of the linear pattern, produced by the above technique, were examined and the following parameters were obtained: propagation loss — 2–3 dB/cm, effective refractive index — 1.6276, number of supported modes — 30).