A two-step K⁺-Na⁺ and Ag⁺-Na⁺ ion-exchange technique is introduced to fabricate single-mode channel waveguides in BK7 glass for the telecom-wavelength region. The dependencies of insertion loss, polarization-dependent loss (PDL), and bending loss of curved waveguides on channel width, diffusion time, and annealing time are investigated. Results show that postannealing is a required process for improving waveguide properties and an optimal annealing time exists. Although relatively narrow mask openings are used in most one-step ion-exchange processes, a wider channel width, to as wide as 10 μm, is preferred for this two-step method. The minimum coupling loss to/from single-mode fiber and the propagation loss is found to be 0.4 dB and 0.3 dB/cm, respectively. For 5-cm-long waveguides the PDL is less than 0.1 dB. For the S-bend structure the cosine curve exhibits apparently a lower bending loss than the double-arc curve.

© 2002 Optical Society of America

[Optical Society of America ]

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Citation lists with outbound citation links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

You do not have subscription access to this journal. Article level metrics are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an OSA member, or as an authorized user of your institution.

Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Log in to access OSA Member Subscription

Related Journal Articles

• Quasi interference of perpendicularly polarized guided modes observed with a photon scanning tunneling microscope (OL)
• Polarization characteristics of optical waveguides with separable symmetric refractive-index profiles (JOSAA)
• Photobleaching for Optical Waveguide Formation in a Guest-Host Polyimide (AO)
• Characterization and application of a channel- planar composite waveguide (OL)
• Analysis of integrated optical waveguides: variational method and effective-index method with built-in perturbation correction (JOSAA)

Related Conference Papers

• Investigation of mini-stop bands in wide photonic crystal waveguides with a low in-plane index contrast
• Fabrication of symmetrical waveguide devices by direct UV writing
• All-Optical Controlled Mach-Zehnder Based Variable Optical Attenuator Using Photochromic Sol Gel Material
• All-Optical Controlled Tunable Optical Filter Using Photochromic Sol Gel Material
• Modal Dispersion Properties of LPG-Assisted Coupling between Single-Mode and Multimode Channel Waveguides