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Updated: Jun 18, 2026

Fabrication And Characterization Of Photonic Crystal Slow Light Waveguides And Cavities
Published on: November 30, 2012
Thermal tuning of hollow waveguides fabricated by controlled thin-film buckling
E Epp1, N Ponnampalam, J N McMullin
1ECE Dept. and TRLabs, University of Alberta, 2nd Floor, 9107-116 St. N.W., Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6G 2V4.
Abstract:
We describe the thermal tuning of air-core Bragg waveguides, fabricated by controlled formation of delamination buckles within a multilayer stack of chalcogenide glass and polymer. The upper cladding mirror is a flexible membrane comprising high thermal expansion materials, enabling large tuning of the air-core dimensions for small changes in temperature. Measurements on the temperature dependence of feature heights showed good agreement with theoretical predictions. We applied this mechanism to the thermal tuning of modal cutoff conditions in waveguides with a tapered core profile. Due to the omnidirectional nature of the cladding mirrors, these tapers can be viewed as waveguide-coupled, tunable Fabry-Perot filters.
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