Planar Fresnel lens photoimprinted in a germanium-doped silica optical waveguide

A gradient-thickness Fresnel lens was photoimprinted in the germanium-doped core layer of a single-mode planar waveguide on silica by exposure to ultraviolet light through a mask, which increases the refractive index in the lens region by approximately 5 x 10(-3). The lens is used to collimate the output of a standard single-mode optical fiber butt coupled to the waveguide at a wavelength of 1.3 microm. The method is applicable to the mass production of complex diffractive elements in a planar waveguide geometry.