Photobleachable Host-Guest Thin Films for Optical Waveguides

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Optical integrated circuits will be at the heart of future high speed fiber optic communications. These circuits require thin film optical components such as waveguides, couplers, and multiplexers. However, at present there exists no technique for fabrication of thin film components that is simple, fast, versatile, reliable and inexpensive. The most basic optical component is the thin film passive waveguide, in which channels of different index of refraction, patterned in a thin film, serve to conduct lightwaves. A straightforward low - cost technique for making waveguides would have wide applicability to hybrid optical integrated circuits, since other optical components could be generated with the same technology. In Phase I we demonstrate a novel waveguide fabrication method. We will use thin films of SiNx, Si0x, and SiCx that have been photosensitized by incorporation of bleachable organic dyes. These films will be masked and exposed to radiation; the resulting waveguide structures will be tested and evaluated. Bleaching of embedded dyes has been used to pattern polymer films. The innovative element in our process is the use of hard "glass" host-guest films, made by Jet Vapor Deposition. JVD allows room temperature deposition of dye-doped glass films on existing silicon based microelectronic circuits. JVD also has advantages in speed, flexibility and cost over sol-gel, CVD and high vacuum sputtering approaches. Successful completion of this project will advance the development of hybrid integrated optical circuits for fiber optic communications.