Structural and optical properties of waveguides in YbVO4 crystals formed by 3.0 MeV Cu2+-ions implantation

We report on the structural and optical characterization of waveguides formed in YbVO4 crystals by Cu2+-ion implantation with an energy of 3.0 MeV and doses of 3.0×1014–1.0×1015 ions/cm2. The damage properties are determined by RBS/Channeling measurements with the help of simulation code RUMP. The m-line method is used to characterize the dark-mode spectroscopy in the planar waveguides. According to the reconstructed refractive index profile of the waveguide cross section, a numerical simulation is carried out to investigate the confinement of the light in the waveguides based on the beam propagation method.