Design and characterization of optical waveguides for integrated lasers

Scope and method of study. The purpose of this study was to improve the characterization techniques for ion-exchanged optical waveguides. X-ray microprobe analysis is currently used as a qualitative characterization tool. Methods to improve this technique were studied. A new technique to obtain waveguide loss was designed and studied. These techniques were applied to design and study a new glass for an neodymium doped waveguide laser.;Findings and conclusions. The x-ray microprobe technique was extended to produce quantitative results for studying planar waveguides. These results produced accurate diffusion coefficients for thermal ion-exchange. This was also taken one step further and channel waveguides were observed using this technique. The new loss measurement technique included using a microscope objective as a method to collect scattered light from a waveguide. The microscope objective was focused on the channel waveguide and the detector, this allowed for an easy method to measure waveguide loss. An integrated laser was designed in a new glass S-3 and some of the characteristics of this glass were compared to other established laser glasses. It was shown two commercial laser glasses were not suitable for guiding light after ion-exchange. Two glasses S-3 and BK-7 were ion-exchanged and both were able to guide light. S-3 was taken one step further and an integrated laser was made with this.