Fabrication of tapers and lenslike waveguides by a microcontrolled dip coating procedure

A technique for the fabrication of tapered and lenslike waveguides from solution-deposited thin films is described. Using a microprocessor controlled dipping arm, substrates are withdrawn from a solution with a carefully controlled and varying velocity. Inthisway optical waveguides with regions of varying thickness are deposited. Following the drying and baking of the films, desired structures are obtained in hard inorganic optical waveguides of good optical quality. With refined profile control, we propose to fabricate other optical waveguide components, for example, thin film lenses with this method.