Theoretical modeling and characterization of annealed proton-exchanged planar waveguides in z-cut LiNbO3

Planar optical waveguides in z-cut LiNbO₃ fabricated by the annealed proton-exchange technique using pure pyrophosphoric acid as the initial proton source have been investigated. A generalized Gaussian function was used to accurately model the refractive-index profile, resulting in considerable improvements over previous work. The nonlinear dependence of the index on the proton concentration was verified by directly calculating the change in the area under the index versus depth curves. Annealing was found to allow for flexibility in the tailoring of the waveguide parameters. An empirical correlation of the changes in these parameters with the fabrication conditions was achieved through the use of a general power law