Optical polymer waveguide devices and their applications to integrated optics and optical signal processing

摘要

Abstract: Polymer technology shows the potential to fabricate andintegrate the basic components of OFDM-crossconnectelements which are important signal processing units ina future transparent optical network. The fabricationand characterization of integrated optical polymercomponents like power splitters and combiners andpolymer directional couplers are presented. The devicesare fiber-pigtailed, packaged and exhibit waveguidelosses in the order of 1 dB/cm at 1.55 $mu@mwavelength. Studies based on guest/host-polymer-systemsfor application on electro-optic polymer devices areshown and the synthesis and characterization ofrare-earth doped polymers for active deviceapplications are reported. Because polymer technologyis a conceptional hybrid, a combination ofsemiconductor and polymer elements on large substratesis proposed. This opens up the possibility for a futurelarge scale integration of optical components tofunctional devices by a cost-effective technology. !8