Polymer waveguides from alicyclic methacrylate copolymer fabricated by deep-UV exposure.
We have investigated the fabrication of waveguides from alicyclic methacrylate copolymer based on refractive-index modification by deep-UV exposure. By optimizing the UV-exposure process, we were able to obtain single-mode waveguides with a propagation loss of 0.8 dB/cm at 1550 nm, which is due only to material losses in this wavelength range. The loss obtained here is comparable with that of poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) waveguides fabricated by deep-UV exposure. The fabricated waveguide is also single mode at 808 nm, and its propagation loss is 0.6 dB/cm. This alicyclic methacrylate copolymer is a promising material for the fabrication of polymer waveguides by use of deep-UV exposure.
Ichihashi
Yasuhisa
Y
Institute for Microstructure Technology, Forschungszentrum Karlsruhe GmbH, Karlsruhe, Germany. yasuhisa.ichihashi@imt.fzk.de
Henzi
Patric
P
Bruendel
Mathias
M
Mohr
Juergen
J
Rabus
Dominik Gerhard
DG