TiO₂/organically modified silane (ORMOSIL) optical waveguide thin films have been prepared at low temperature by the sol-gel technique by using y- Glycidoxypropyltrimethoxysilane and tetrapropylorthotitanate as precursors. Atomic force microscopy has been used to characterize the morphology and structural properties of the waveguide films. Waveguide properties of these composite thin films on III-V compound semiconductor substrates such as their refractive index, thickness, and propagation loss have been studied. It was experimentally demonstrated that grating structures could easily be fabricated for these composite thin films by using the embossing technique and we have successfully fabricated the grating by this method without baking. It was found that this method is specifically useful for the fabrication of diffractive grating and optical planar waveguides on sol-gel derived glass film coated on temperature sensitive substrates such as III-V compound semiconductors. As a preliminary result, the ridge waveguide and grating with a period of 1.102 micrometer and depth of 57.2 nm have been successfully fabricated.

Date Published: 3 October 2000
PDF: 6 pages
Proc. SPIE 4220, Advanced Photonic Sensors: Technology and Applications, (3 October 2000); doi: 10.1117/12.401680

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4220:
Advanced Photonic Sensors: Technology and Applications
Jinfa Tang; Chao-Nan Xu; Haizhang Li, Editor(s)