Fibre on glass (FOG): a novel concept for planar photonics

Novel glasses are important optoelectronic materials, offering the possibilities of. a wide transmission window, high optical non-linearity, broad range of compositions and the ability to incorporate high concentrations of active dopants. Photonic integrated circuits based on heavy metal fluoride and fluorotellurite glasses are particularly attractive, potentially offering geometrical flexibility in design and efficient optical amplification. We describe a new class of planar integrated optical circuits, formed by thermally bonding optical fibres onto glass substrates, and present initial design, simulation and fabrication results.