Papers by Keyword: Planar Waveguides

Abstract: This paper describes a new active optical alignment method that is developed for the alignment of optical fibers to planar waveguide in order to improve the precision and efficiency of that. A new coupling mode, which is a polynomial function, is rebuilt by simplifying effect factors of the light field coupling process, such as angular offsets and line offsets. The optimum curve which is calculated to fit those sampling points by taking advantage of the least square method assists to locate the maximum coupling point of the alignment. Simulation results show that the alignment of two single mode fields is improved into 0.1μm precision with only 6 sampling points by the new method instead of 0.4μm offset with average 21.4 sample points by hill-climbing method. Using this alignment method, a fiber-to-waveguide, high-efficient coupling that provides higher accurate alignment with less sampling points is achieved.

Abstract: This paper reports on the design and fabrication of Poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) single mode rib waveguide. PDMS was chosen as the base material for both the core and cladding of the waveguide. Such a PDMS waveguide allows an easy integration with microoptical components for lab-on-a-chip systems fabricated by soft lithography fabrication methods. The modification of the PDMS refractive index was achieved by diluting the base material with hexane. The fabricated PDMS rib waveguides were characterized for mode profile characteristics and the results confirmed the excitation of the waveguide's fundamental mode. The propagation loss was characterized at a wavelength of 635 nm and found to be 0.48 dB/cm. Such a low loss waveguide is useful as basic building block for complex microphonotnics device.