Abstract
Fabrication and optical characterization of single-mode polymeric embedded waveguides are performed. A
specific material combination (SU-8 2005 as core and the modified SU-8 mr-L 6050XP as cladding) is chosen in order
to obtain a small refractive index difference for single-mode propagation combined with the conventional fabrication
method UV lithography to facilitate the integration of different types of optical detection methods on lab-on-a-chip
systems. We analyze the behavior of the refractive index and carefully observe how the value of the refractive index
can be tailored during processing. We show that we can fabricate waveguides with an index difference in the order of
10<sup>-3</sup>, where both the core material and the cladding
material are based on SU-8. The refractive index measurements are performed on thin polymeric films, while further
optical characterizations are performed on waveguides with a height of 4.5 µm. We study the mode profiles of these waveguides and confirm that only the fundamental mode
is excited. We also study the absorption spectra of the material in the wavelength range 800–1600 nm combined
with cut-back measurements. We find that the waveguides have a propagation loss of 0.2–3 dB/cm in this
wavelength range.
© 2007 IEEE
PDF Article
More Like This
Cited By
You do not have subscription access to this journal. Cited by links are available to subscribers only. You may subscribe either as an Optica member, or as an authorized user of your institution.
Contact your librarian or system administrator
or
Login to access Optica Member Subscription