PLANAR OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE, METHOD OF MANUFACTURING THE SAME, AND POLYMER OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE

摘要

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a planar optical waveguide which has substantially a circular cross section by a simple process.;SOLUTION: The planar optical waveguide is provided with a laminated films (21 and 41) formed on a substrate 11 and an optical waveguide core (31) formed in the laminated films (21 and 41). The cross section of the core (31) is nearly square and dopant layers (21 and 41) containing refractive index- lowering molecules are arranged around the optical waveguide core (31). The refractive index-lowering molecules contained in the dopant layers (21 and 41) are unevenly distributed in the core (31) with a concentration which is higher toward the outer side and the corner part of the core (31), thereby a graded- index optical waveguide is constituted.;COPYRIGHT: (C)2002,JPO