title: Design and investigation of properties of nanocrystalline diamond optical planar waveguides.
abstract: Diamond thin films have remarkable properties comparable with natural diamond. Because of these properties it is a very promising material for many various applications (sensors, heat sink, optical mirrors, chemical and radiation wear, cold cathodes, tissue engineering, etc.) In this paper we report about design, deposition and measurement of properties of optical planar waveguides fabricated from nanocrystalline diamond thin films. The nanocrystalline diamond planar waveguide was deposited by microwave plasma enhanced chemical vapor deposition and the structure of the deposited film was studied by scanning electron microscopy and Raman spectroscopy. The design of the presented planar waveguides was realized on the bases of modified dispersion equation and was schemed for 632.8 nm, 964 nm, 1 310 nm and 1 550 nm wavelengths. Waveguiding properties were examined by prism coupling technique and it was found that the diamond based planar optical element guided one fundamental mode for all measured wavelengths. Values of the refractive indices of our NCD thin film measured at various wavelengths were almost the same as those of natural diamond.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microelectronics, Faculty of Electrical Engineering, Czech Technical University in Prague, Technicka 2, 166 27 Prague 6, Czech Republic.
authors.forename: Vaclav
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Prajzler
authors.forename: Marian
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Varga
authors.forename: Pavla
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Nekvindova
authors.forename: Zdenek
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Remes
authors.forename: Alexander
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kromka
mesh_terms: D003460:Crystallization; D018130:Diamond / Q000737:chemistry*; D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D053758:Nanoparticles / Q000737:chemistry*; D036103:Nanotechnology / Q000295:instrumentation*; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*; D020349:Surface Plasmon Resonance / Q000295:instrumentation*
chemical_list: D018130:Diamond