Abstract

Chalcogenide glasses have unique properties which may lead to low cost integrated photonic devices. The ability to modify their refractive index by photodarkening enables chalcogenide glasses to be patterned for passive and active waveguide device applications. In particular, rare earth doped chalcogenide glasses are attractive for planar waveguide devices operating in the 1300 and 1550 nm range because of the ability to pattern waveguides by photodarkening, infrared transparency, high refractive index, low phonon energies, and ease of thin film deposition.

© 1995 Optical Society of America