Planar polymer waveguides with a graded-index profile resulting from intermixing of methacrylates in closed microchannels
| Autor: | Martin J. Booth, Patrick Salter, Lara Renée Misseeuw, Peter Dubruel, Jeroen Missinne, Sandra Van Vlierberghe, Kenny Adesanya, Geert Van Steenberge, Xiang Liu |
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| Rok vydání: | 2018 |
| Předmět: |
Intermixing
Polymer waveguide 02 engineering and technology Methacrylate Soft lithography law.invention Inorganic Chemistry Graded-index 020210 optoelectronics & photonics Planar DESIGN law 0202 electrical engineering electronic engineering information engineering Electrical and Electronic Engineering Physical and Theoretical Chemistry Spectroscopy chemistry.chemical_classification Microchannel business.industry SOFT-LITHOGRAPHY Organic Chemistry PLASTIC OPTICAL-FIBERS BOARD Polymer Cladding (fiber optics) Atomic and Molecular Physics and Optics Electronic Optical and Magnetic Materials Chemistry chemistry Capillary filling Optoelectronics business Waveguide Refractive index |
| Zdroj: | OPTICAL MATERIALS |
| ISSN: | 1873-1252 0925-3467 |
| Popis: | Graded-index waveguides are known to exhibit lower losses and considerably larger bandwidths compared to step-index waveguides. The present work reports on a new concept for realizing such waveguides on a planar substrate by capillary filling microchannels (cladding) with monomer solution (core). A graded-index profile is obtained by intermixing between the core and cladding material at the microchannel interface. To this end, various ratios of methyl methacrylate (MMA) and octafluoropentyl methacrylate (OFPMA) were evaluated as starting monomers and the results showed that the polymers P50:50 (50:50 MMA:OFPMA) and P0:100 (100% OFPMA) were suitable to be applied as waveguide core and cladding material respectively. Light guiding in the resulting P50:50/P0:100 waveguides was demonstrated and the refractive-index profile was quantified and compared with that of conventional step-index waveguides. The results for both cases were clearly different and a gradual refractive index transition between the core and cladding was found for the newly developed waveguides. Although the concept has been demonstrated in a research environment, it also has potential for upscaling by employing drop-on-demand dispensing of polymer waveguide material in pre-patterned microchannels, for example in a roll-to-roll environment. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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