Proton-implanted sapphire planar and channel waveguides

摘要

Implantation of H{sup}+ and He{sup}+ ions is particularly suitable to produce optical waveguides since these light ions produce a buried damage layer caused by nuclear collision at the end of the ion tracks. In the case of crystals, a low-refractive-index barrier is formed and the area between the barrier and the surface acts as a waveguide [1,2]. In this work, we demonstrate the first planar waveguides fabricated by proton implantation into sapphire (a-Al{sub}2O{sub}3) and the feasibility of channel waveguide formation by polyimide strip-loading of the samples.