Abstract

The major challange in extending planner light wave circuits (PLC) to a wider base of photonics applications is the compensation required for phase errors and intrinsic waveguide birefringence that arise in manufacturing. Laser trim ming is a potentially powerful tool to correct such phase errors¹ and birefringence.² While photosensitization enhancement techniques such as hydrogen loading are normally required to induce sufficient refractive index change, in PLCs the hydrogen-induced enhancement offers little shelf life and is intrinsically unstable due to rapid defect relaxation and residual hydrogen outdiffusion through a thin cladding layer.

© 2002 Optical Society of America