Abstract

The main objective of our study is to develop a new approach to the annealed proton exchange (APE) method for the fabrication of the multifunctional integrated optical chip (MIOC) used in fiber-optic gyro systems and to eliminate the loss of time and material, especially in mass production applications. In this work, self-polarized waveguides, which are the basic components of a MIOC device, were produced by the APE method and studied. With the developed method, controlled annealing trials have been carried out from a certain region on the ${\rm LiNbO}_3$ substrate used in waveguide production, and the annealing time specific to the annealing process was determined. By utilizing a special setup for the hot acid process, the proton exchange process was accomplished without a sudden temperature change of the substrate. Using prism coupling measurements of the fabricated waveguides, annealing times were determined to obtain index change values suitable for 45%–50% optical throughput. Mode profiles of devices with high optical throughput that were produced by the proposed method were measured, and it was seen that devices from different proton exchange runs had similar profiles. As a result, many undamaged substrates were fabricated, and their optical quality was found to be within the expected values.

© 2022 Optica Publishing Group

Dilute-melt, proton-exchange slab waveguides in LiNbO₃: a new fabrication and characterization method

Torben Veng and Torben Skettrup
Appl. Opt. 36(24) 5941-5948 (1997)

Characterization of annealed, proton-exchanged optical waveguides in ZnO:LiNbO₃ crystal

Wei Xing Hou and Tow Chong Chong
Appl. Opt. 36(21) 5083-5088 (1997)

Planar LiTaO₃ waveguides fabricated by proton exchange in concentrated and diluted pyrophosphoric acid with annealing

Dennis Kan and Gar Lam Yip
Appl. Opt. 35(27) 5348-5356 (1996)

Characterization of proton-exchange and annealed LiNbO₃ waveguides with pyrophosphoric acid

N. Goto and Gar Lam Yip
Appl. Opt. 28(1) 60-65 (1989)

Highly efficient second-harmonic generation in buried waveguides formed by annealed and reverse proton exchange in periodically poled lithium niobate

Krishnan R. Parameswaran, Roger K. Route, Jonathan R. Kurz, Rostislav V. Roussev, Martin M. Fejer, and Masatoshi Fujimura
Opt. Lett. 27(3) 179-181 (2002)