Laminated Air Structured and Fluid Infiltrated Polymer Waveguides

We present a new technique for the fabrication of air structured polymer planar waveguides using dry film lamination. The utility of this technique is demonstrated by realizing an array of micron scale air channels which are fluid infiltrated and operated as a coupled waveguide array. Temperature tuned discrete diffraction is demonstrated indicating that the waveguides are single mode and exhibit symmetric, coherent coupling. The demonstrated platform provides a low-cost planar analogue to two-dimensional air structured fibers with potential for fundamental investigations in nonlinear optics and also optical sensors which may be integrated with microfluidic lab-on-a-chip systems.