M. Sc. Student:  Moshe Shklar

We develop a generic methodology for constructing waveguiding structures by combining “Laser ablation” and Refractive index engineering by "ion implantations”. The structures are side cladded by air and bottom cladded by an implanted layer with reduced refractive index. This enables the construction of circular structures with complex geometry with small radii of curvature featuring low losses. Furthermore, this fabrication technique enables the construction of microfluidic channels on the same substrate. Waveguides that were constructed using this technique were demonstrated in KLTN substrates. Our preliminary results are described in [REF19].

Figure 1: Demonstration of a curved waveguide with air side-cladding fabricated by laser ablation, and bottom cladding fabricated by implantation of He⁺ ions at 2.3 MeV. The bottom cladding layer is 0.5 µm thick with refractive index reduced by 7.7 % with respect to the unperturbed KLTN substrate. An image of the output plane of the waveguide is shown on the left. The input was illuminated by a focused laser beam at l=0.6328 µm.