Ion-Exchanged Waveguides for Signal Processing Applications - A Novel Electrolytic Process

摘要

Ion exchange process and technology for fabrication of optical waveguides has been studied systematically to improve the reproducibility and establish the correlation between the process parameters and the component characteristics. Two-step process has been studied extensively and used for fabrication of low-loss fiber-compatible single-mode buried channel waveguides using the Na+ - Ag+ cation pair. Nonlinear waveguides have been studied theoretically and some of the predictions have been verified experimentally in K+ - Na+ ion-exchanged waveguides in semiconductor-doped glasses. Keywords: Attenuation, Bistability, Borosilicate, Concentration cell, Concentration profile, Diffusion, Electrolytic release, Electromigration, Fiber Optics, Galvanic cell, Glasses.