Analysis of waveguide silica glasses using Raman microscopy

A spectroscopic method to determine dopant concentrations in silicas used in silica on silicon planar waveguides has been developed. Raman spectroscopic measurements in the range 740 cm−1–1370 cm−1 of cross-sections of the glass layers identified correlations between simple, rapidly calculated, spectral features related separately to each of the three dopants, boron, phosphorous and germanium, and the wt% analyses results for these dopants from inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) measurements on fragments from the respective wafers. The calibration wafers comprised a set of monitor wafers with dopant concentrations spanning the ranges used in devices. The Raman-based analyses were able to determine boron and phosphorous wt% s in boro-phosphosilicate cladding glasses with accuracies of ≈0.1 wt% and germanium wt% s in core glasses with an accuracy of at least ≈0.3 wt% (small batch size). The method, which performed successfully in blind tests, provides a spatially resolving and rapid alternative to ICP-MS analyses of monitor wafers. Exploratory face-on measurements were performed on device wafers. Spectra of the cladding, core and underlayer were obtained from AWG samples. The effects of the confocal volume’s finite size and refractive index differences were observed. Exploratory measurements using UV Raman excitation showed potential advantages for cladding glass analyses.