Abstract

There has been an increasing interest in using organic polymers to implement optical waveguide devices. Organic polymers have low intrinsic losses, and devices built with these materials can easily be fabricated using standard VLSI technology. However, most organic polymers have a glass transition temperature (T_g) of less than 100°C. This affects the long term stability of polymer devices in practical use. This paper reports the characteristics of phase modulators built with polymers having T_g > 300°C. The prototype devices are fabricated on silicon substrates. A 4-μm layer of SiO₂ bottom cladding is deposited on top of an aluminum ground electrode. The core consists of 5 μm of photosensitive polyimide doped with 2-methyl-4-nitroanaline. The top electrode is separated from the core by a second layer of photosensitive polymer. Channel waveguides are then subsequently defined by poling the core with a static field of the order of 100 V/μm. Both Dupont PI2700 and Probimide 400 series polyimide were used as the polymer host in the core. The polymer NA61 was used in the top cladding layer.

© 1991 Optical Society of America