Abstract

A new optical waveguide (OWG) with a composite structure was designed and fabricated for chemical and biological sensing applications. The composite OWG consists of a uniform TiO2 film and a pair of tapered SiO2 films coated together on the surface of a single-mode potassium ion-exchanged (PIE) planar waveguide. By use of the TiO2 film-covered SiO2 tapers as optical directional couplers,the TiO2 film becomes a single-mode waveguiding layer with an enhanced evanescent field and an increased surface-scattering loss. Such composite structure can be used to make a polarimetric OWG interferometer and to make the polarization-insensitive PIE waveguide a TM polarizer. The composite OWG was characterized theoretically and experimentally.

[IEEE ]

Characterization and application of a channel–planar composite waveguide

Zhi-Mei Qi, Kiminori Itoh, Masayuki Murabayashi, and C. R. Lavers
Opt. Lett. 25(19) 1427-1429 (2000)

Composite optical waveguide composed of a tapered film of bromothymol blue evaporated onto a potassium ion–exchanged waveguide and its application as a guided wave absorption–based ammonia-gas sensor

Zhi-mei Qi, Abliz Yimit, Kiminori Itoh, Masayuki Murabayashi, Naoki Matsuda, Akiko Takatsu, and Kenji Kato
Opt. Lett. 26(9) 629-631 (2001)

Integrated Young interferometer sensor with a channel-planar composite waveguide sensing arm

Zhi-mei Qi, Shukai Zhao, Fang Chen, and Shanhong Xia
Opt. Lett. 34(14) 2213-2215 (2009)

Measurement of the modal birefringence of single-mode K⁺ ion-exchanged planar waveguides with polarimetric interferometry

Zhi-mei Qi, Kiminori Itoh, and Masayuki Murabayashi
Appl. Opt. 39(31) 5750-5754 (2000)

Characterization of planar antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide structures on silicon by an Abbe refractometer

B. Smith, D. F. Clark, and C. Hamilton
Opt. Lett. 20(20) 2084-2086 (1995)