Abstract

A convenient and accurate method for determining the birefringence of a thin dielectric film is presented. In this technique, the film is deposited directly onto the base of a prism, thus forming a leaky waveguide, and a converging laser beam is coupled into the film to excite simultaneously many leaky modes. We present an error analysis to evaluate the effect of each source of uncertainty on the value of the birefringence.

© 1984 Optical Society of America

Birefringent prism couplers for thin-film optical waveguides

Irwin J. Kurland and Henry L. Bertoni
Appl. Opt. 17(7) 1030-1037 (1978)

Measurement of Thin Film Parameters with a Prism Coupler

R. Ulrich and R. Torge
Appl. Opt. 12(12) 2901-2908 (1973)

Measuring refractive index and thickness of thin films: a new technique

Tie-Nan Ding and Elsa Garmire
Appl. Opt. 22(20) 3177-3181 (1983)

Determining the refractive index and thickness of thin films from prism coupler measurements

Steven T. Kirsch
Appl. Opt. 20(12) 2085-2089 (1981)

Simultaneous measurement of thermo-optic and stress-optic coefficients of polymer thin films using prism coupler technique

Md. Faruque Hossain, Hau Ping Chan, and Mohammad Afsar Uddin
Appl. Opt. 49(3) 403-408 (2010)