Electron-beam-induced densification of Ge-doped flame hydrolysis silica for waveguide fabrication.

Experimentally we compare the densification induced by electron beam irradiation of Ge-doped silica, produced by flame hydrolysis deposition with the densification of thermally produced SiO[sub 2]. By comparing these results to the predictions made by elasticity theory, we find good agreement for the thermal SiO[sub 2] by considering a single region of electron beam damage. For the Ge-doped flame-hydrolysis-deposited silica, we need to include in the model a second, shallow region, which densifies to a greater extent. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements suggest that the thickness of this additional region is comparable to a layer that was found to be depleted of Ge. © 2001 American Institute of Physics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]