Micromachining of ridge optical waveguides on top of He{sup +}-implanted {beta}-BaB{sub 2}O{sub 4} crystals by femtosecond laser ablation
- Nonlinear Optics Laboratory, Institute of Quantum Electronics, ETH Zurich, CH-8093 Zurich (Switzerland)
We report on a technique for the fabrication of ridge optical waveguides on top of {beta}-BaB{sub 2}O{sub 4} (BBO) crystals. The BBO crystals were first implanted by He{sup +} ions to form planar optical waveguides. In the second step, the femtosecond laser ablation technique was employed for micromachining of ridge-type optical waveguides. A thorough study of material-specific ablation parameters for BBO has been performed in order to achieve ablated structures with smooth sidewalls. A further process of Ar{sup +} ion smoothing in a plasma chamber was used to reduce the sidewall roughness of the ablated ridges from 75 to 35 nm root mean square. We demonstrated optical waveguiding in these femtosecond-ablated plasma-treated waveguides and measured total propagation losses of less than 10 dB/cm at 532 nm, making them suitable for nonlinear- and electro-optical applications.
- OSTI ID:
- 20884897
- Journal Information:
- Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 100, Issue 11; Other Information: DOI: 10.1063/1.2396716; (c) 2006 American Institute of Physics; Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 0021-8979
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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