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Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Slow light structures in dye-doped polymer waveguides
1Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado 80309-0425, USA. edward.mckenna@colorado.edu
Applied Optics
|June 21, 2007
Summary
Researchers developed a new method to create slow light structures using photobleaching in polymer waveguides. This technique successfully fabricated moiré gratings with demonstrated slowing factors, offering potential for optical device applications.
Area of Science:
- Materials Science
- Optics and Photonics
Background:
- Slow light phenomena are crucial for optical signal processing and buffering.
- Fabricating stable slow light structures in polymers presents challenges due to material stress.
Purpose of the Study:
- To present a simple and consistent technique for fabricating slow light structures.
- To demonstrate moiré gratings with controllable slowing factors in dye-doped polymer waveguides.
Main Methods:
- Utilized irreversible photobleaching to create moiré gratings in side-chained PMMA/DR1 films.
- Employed annealing during photobleaching to mitigate film stress and prevent surface damage.
- Calculated the slowing factor using the Hilbert transform on the waveguide reflectance spectrum.
Main Results:
- Successfully fabricated moiré gratings within polymer waveguides.
- Achieved slowing factors ranging from 1.6 to 2.6.
- Demonstrated the effectiveness of annealing in preventing photobleaching-induced film distortion.
Conclusions:
- The presented photobleaching technique offers a viable method for creating slow light structures.
- The annealing step is critical for producing high-quality, stress-free gratings.
- The demonstrated moiré gratings show potential for use in advanced optical devices.
