Trimming of polymer waveguide Y-junction by rapid photobleaching for tuning the power splitting ratio

Author

Chen, Antao ; Chuyanov, Vadim ; Marti-Carrera, Felix Ignacio ; Garner, Sean ; Steier, William H. ; Mao, Shane S H ; Younsoo Pa ; Dalton, Larry R. ; Shi, Yongqiang

Author_Institution

Dept. of Electr. Eng.-Electrophys., Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA, USA

Volume

9

Issue

11

fYear

1997

Firstpage

1499

Lastpage

1501

Abstract

We present a novel post-fabrication laser trimming technique to adjust the power splitting ratio of rib waveguide Y-junctions made in thermally crosslinked electrooptic polymers. The trimming is based on the index change due to photobleaching, and it takes only a few seconds. An adjustable range of the splitting ratio as wide as /spl plusmn/20% is achieved with less than 0.2 dB of excess loss. This in situ trimming technique is effective for both the TE and TM modes of the waveguide and is very suitable for automated device processing.

Keywords

electro-optical devices; integrated optics; laser beam machining; optical fabrication; optical losses; optical polymers; optical saturable absorption; optical waveguides; refractive index; rib waveguides; 0.2 dB; TE modes; TM modes; automated device processing; excess loss; in situ trimming technique; index change; integrated optics; photobleaching; polymer waveguide Y-junction; post-fabrication laser trimming technique; power splitting ratio; rapid photobleaching; rib waveguide Y-junctions; splitting ratio; thermally crosslinked electrooptic polymers; tuning; Electrooptical waveguides; Fiber lasers; Laser tuning; Optical modulation; Optical refraction; Optical variables control; Optical waveguides; Photobleaching; Polymers; Waveguide lasers;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Photonics Technology Letters, IEEE

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1041-1135

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/68.634721

Filename

634721