Zro ₂ -sio ₂ Binary System Preparation And Characterization Of Planar Optical Waveguide Materials

Planar optical waveguides are basic structures of optical integrated. The research progress and the facing difficulties of active/passive planar optical waveguides were systematically summarized and reviewed in this paper. ZrO2-Si02 binary oxide gel glasses and films applied for active optical waveguides were prepared by the sol-gel method with zirconium oxychloride and tetraethoxysilane as precursors. The paper has investigated the influence of the compositions of system and heat treatment temperature on the system refractive index in ZrOj-SiOj binary oxide gel glasses. The main factors that influenced the film thickness and refractive index have been found. The relationship between the film refractive index and compositions of system > heat treatment temperature has been built. The continuous regulation of the thickness andirefractive index of the thin films has also been realized, which will open up new possibilities in the development of active optical waveguides.In ZrO2-SiO2 binary oxide gel glasses, the refractive index of mixed oxide gel glass is linear with the ZrCh content. The refractive index of gel glass will increase with the increase of the heat treatment temperature. After the same heat treatment, the refractive index of various ZrCfe content gel glass is also linear with the ZrOa content, but the excessive heat treatment temperatures (>150癈) have had no help to refractive index enhancement. By choosing different composition and heat treatment process, ZrC>2-SiO2 gel glasses with various refractive index can be prepared.In ZrO2-SiC>2 binary oxide thin films, the refractive index of films will also increase with the increase of ZrO2 content. But the linear relationship between refractive index and ZrO2 contents was hardly found in films, since there are lots of residual water and organic compounds in films without heat treatment. Comparing with those of the films without treatment, the refractive indices of heat treatment films would increase significantly. However, refractive index would increase hardly when heat treatment temperature became higher than 100'C. To those films with variousZrO2 contents, the linear relationship with refract index and ZrO2 contents would become more significant with the increase of heat treatment temperature. When temperature reached 100癈, the residual water and organic compounds in the films would evaporate sufficiently and the refractive index was already linear with ZrO2 contents.Optical losses in thin films were mainly ascribed to light radiation and some light absorb. Optical losses measured under 1547nm laser would increase from 1.86?0.05dB/cm at room temperature to 3.15 ?0.02dB/cm at 100 'C heat treatment.