title: Planar waveguide-based silica-polymer hybrid variable optical attenuator and its associated polymers.
abstract: We have proposed a silica-polymer hybrid variable optical attenuator that we made by creating two trenches along the core of a straight silica planar waveguide and filling the trenches with a polymer. The polymer, which had a superhigh thermo-optic coefficient, was specially designed and developed in this study to lower the power consumption of the device. We achieved a maximum attenuation of -29 dB for the device by changing the polymer's temperature by only 7 degrees C. The device has a very low power consumption at 2-3 mW/channel, making it a good candidate for integration with arrayed waveguide gratings.
authors.affiliation: Photonic Systems Group, Institute for National Measurement Standards, National Research Council of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario K1A, 0R6, Canada. zhiyi.zhang@nrc-cnrc.gc.ca
authors.forename: Zhiyi
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Zhang
authors.forename: Gao Zhi
authors.initials: GZ
authors.lastname: Xiao
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Chander P
authors.initials: CP
authors.lastname: Grover