Abstract

Low speed active integrated - optical devices fabricated on glass substrates are investigated. Glass waveguides fabricated by ion-exchange are low loss (< 0.2 dB/cm), easy to fabricate, and immune to optical damage as encounted in LiNbO₃ waveguides, which make them attractive for certain applications that do not require high speeds. Thermal effects in dielectric waveguides induce refractive index perturbations.¹ This, along with the thermal expansion, can be utilized to generate phase modulation in dielectric materials, such as glass. In this paper, we report the experimental results of thermo-optical phase modulation and switching in single mode integrated-optical glass structures.

© 1984 Optical Society of America