Thermal effects and photoluminescence of zirconium doped hybrid sol gel waveguide

Multifactor lithographic process conditions have been achieved in order to fabricate 3-D single mode waveguide. One of the key factors is the heating (preheating and post-baking) process. Good waveguides were formed with 30 min of pre-heating at 100 °C. Sol gel waveguides have low light loss (0.16 dB/cm), which was achieved with an aged sol gel slab waveguide. By carefully controlling the index difference between cladding and core, light was easily launched into 4-inch lengths of single mode 3-D ridge waveguides. As the heating time increases, the luminescence intensities increase until 65 h and ceased further post-baking process at 110 °C. The thermally produced chromophore luminescence intensity was reduced about 10% after deep UV exposure for 12 min and no further reduction was observed.