Polymer channel waveguide: Prospects of production and characterization

This work shows the production of optical channel waveguides in polymethyl methacrylate slabs. A writing technique employing an Argon laser at 488 nm was used. Parameters in the writing step were adjusted to obtain waveguides with different characteristics. Writing scanning speeds of 5 mm/s, 3 mm/s and 1 mm/s resulted in waveguides widths of 0.4 mm, 0.5 mm and 0.8 mm, respectively. Transversal profiles of refractive index of waveguides were measured by means of Optical Coherence Tomography. Guiding capability was determined by the near field pattern diffraction.