Low-loss measurement in part!ally buried optical waveguides on glass with a plastic prism

摘要

Surface and buried planar waveguides have been fabricated in glass microscope slides with purely thermal potassium and sodium ion-exchange techniques. We measured propagation loss as low as 0.08 dB/cm in the partially buried waveguides using an improved two-prism coupling method. The method includes a plastic prism and involves applying heat to soften the base of the outcoupling plastic prism so that the prism is temporarily in extremely close contact with the waveguide surface. # 1997 Optical Society of America