title: Photosensitization of optical fiber and silica-on-silicon/silica waveguides.
abstract: Localized heating with a flame is shown to be a simple and effective method for substantially augmenting the photosensitivity of high-silica optical waveguides to (UV) light. The method increases the photosensitivity of standard (Ge-doped core) telecommunications fiber by a factor greater than 10 (photoinduced Deltan(uv) > 10(-3)) and renders strongly photosensitive the cores of high-quality Ge:SiO(2)-on-Si and Ge:SiO(2)-on-SiO(2) planar waveguides that were negligibly photosensitive before treatment. We have written large-modulation-depth Bragg gratings, in both fiber and planar optical waveguides photosensitized by our method, using KrF (249-nm) radiation incident upon the waveguides through a zero-order-nulled phase mask. It is noteworthy that photosensitization by our method is achieved with a negligible increase in loss at the three principal optical communication windows.
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bilodeau
authors.forename: B
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Malo
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Albert
authors.forename: D C
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: Johnson
authors.forename: K O
authors.initials: KO
authors.lastname: Hill
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Hibino
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Abe
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kawachi