Thermally stable optical waveguide using polycarbonate

TLDR: In this article, a thermally stable polymer waveguide was fabricated using polycarbonate as the core material, resulting in a good mode matching waveguide with a single mode silica fiber.

Abstract: Thermally stable polymer waveguide was fabricated using polycarbonate as the core material Polycarbonate is thermally stable up to 190 degrees C, has small birefringence of 0003 and good otpical transparency at 13 micrometers We used Cyclotene 3022 as the cladding material The material has 045 percent lower refractive index than the core material, resulting in a good mode matching waveguide with a single mode silica fiber Buried channel waveguides were fabricated by conventional photolithography and dry etching technique The thickness of the guiding layer was 53 micrometers and the width of the waveguides varied form 3 to 8 micrometers They showed an optical loss of less than 08 and 14 dB/cm at the wavelength of 13 micrometers for TE and TM polarizations, respectively