Visible and near-infrared waveguides formed by double-energy proton implantation in magneto-optical glasses

Abstract

Ion implantation is one of the most competitive methods for the fabrication of optical waveguide structures in optoelectronic materials. Tb3+-doped aluminum borosilicate glass has been demonstrated to be a type of magneto-optical glass with high Verdet constant. In this work, the proton implantation technique with energies of (500 + 550) keV and fluences of (1.0 + 2.0) × 1016 ions/cm2 is performed to form planar waveguides in the Tb3+-doped aluminum borosilicate glass. The guiding modes of the fabricated waveguide were measured by the prism-coupling method at wavelengths of 632.8 and 1539 nm. The near-field light intensity distribution was measured by the end-face coupling method at the wavelength of 632.8 nm and calculated by the finite-difference beam propagation method at both 632.8 and 1539 nm. The optical properties of the double-energy proton-implanted magneto-optical glass waveguides show promise for use as multi-functional integrated optical devices in the visible and near-infrared bands.