Search

We report the fabrication and the physical and optical characterizations of sulphide GaxGe25-xSb10S65(x=0,5) rib waveguides. High quality films fabricated on SiO2/Si wafer substrates were obtained using the sputtering magnetron rf deposition method. The slab waveguides obtained without annealing present propagation losses of about 0.6 dB/cm at 1550 nm. These optical losses are not important for implementation in optical devices based on silicon-on-insulator or polymer, for instance, atomic force microscopy measurements revealed low interface roughness between the different media (substrate/film and film/air). Reactive ion etching was used to pattern rib waveguides between 2 and 300 μm wide. The parameters were optimized to obtain a dry etching process that had low surface roughness, vertical sidewalls, etch depth of more than 1 μm, and reasonable etching rate. This technique was used to fabricate Y optical junctions for optical interconnections on chalcogenide amorphous films. Their optical transmission was demonstrated by optical near field of guided modes and optical losses were measured and discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Amorphous chalcogenide films play a motivating role in the development of integrated planar optical circuits due to their potential functionality in near infrared (IR) and mid-IR spectral regions. More specifically, the photoluminescence of rare earth ions in amorphous chalcogenide films can be used in laser and amplifier devices in the IR spectral domain. The aim of the present investigation was to optimize the deposition conditions for the fabrication of undoped and Er3+ doped sulphide and selenide thin films with nominal composition Ga5Ge20Sb10S(Se)65 or Ga5Ge23Sb5S67 by pulsed laser deposition (PLD). The study of compositional, morphological and structural characteristics of the layers was realized by scanning electron microscopy–energy dispersive spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy and Raman spectroscopy analyses, respectively. Some optical properties (transmittance, index of refraction, optical band gap, etc.) of prepared chalcogenide films and optical losses were investigated as well. The clear identification of near-IR photoluminescence of Er3+ ions was obtained for both selenide and sulphide films. The decay of the 4I13/2 → 4I15/2 transition at 1.54µm in Er3+ doped Ga5Ge20Sb10S65 PLD sulphide films was studied to assess the effects of film thickness, rare earth concentration and multilayer PLD deposition on their spectroscopic properties. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]