Microfabricated SrTiO3 ridge waveguides.

We report the microfabrication and characterization of SrTiO₃/SiO₂/Si ridge waveguides. SrTiO₃ films are very attractive for optical integrated systems as they present a high transparency in the visible and infrared wavelength range as well as a relatively high refractive index. In this work, SrTiO₃ films were grown by means of a reactive pulsed-laser-deposition technique and patterned using UV photolithography and high-density plasma etching. Propagation and loss characteristics at the telecommunication wavelength of 1.55 μm were investigated using top-view scattering and Fabry-Perot resonance methods. For specific ridge widths, we obtained single-mode propagation with relatively low losses (∼1.5 dB/cm), thereby demonstrating the strong potential of SrTiO₃ films for guided-wave components for advanced optical integrated systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]