Optical channel waveguide formation by focused ion beam induced selective mixing and wet chemical etching: Design, fabrication and characterization

ptical channel waveguides were fabricated for the first time in multiple quantum well (MQW) samples using selective mixing induced by focused ion beam implantation and subsequent rapid thermal annealing. The fabrication parameters were optimized using photoluminescence characterization. The channel waveguides were characterized at ;Wet chemical etching formulations and techniques were developed for fabrication of low loss ridge optical waveguides by shallow etching in GaAs/AlGaAs and InP samples. Using these techniques, channel waveguides of various widths were fabricated on uniform core AlGaAs heterostructures, and characterized at ;Ridge waveguides were fabricated in deuterium passivated GaAs and InP substrates, and planar and channel waveguide operation were demonstrated. Channel waveguide losses as low as 12.7 dB/cm for GaAs, and 6.0 dB/cm for InP have been measured at ;Sample preparation techniques for optical waveguide fabrication were developed. The non-destructive outscattering loss measurement technique was used for waveguide propagation loss measurements at 0.83...