Optical properties of Yb3+-doped silicate glasses waveguides formed by low-dose oxygen ion implantation and effects of annealing

The planar waveguide, to our knowledge, has been firstly fabricated in the Yb3+-doped silicate glass by 6.0 MeV O3+ ion implantation at a dose of 6 × 1014 ions/cm2. The guiding properties are characterized by the prism-coupling and end-face coupling methods with a He–Ne beam. The dark-mode spectra and near-field intensity distribution are measured before and after annealing at 250 °C for 1 h in air. The results indicate that the thermal treatment can enhance the propagation properties with preserving the effective refractive indices well. The refractive index profile of the planar waveguide is reconstructed by the reflectivity calculation method, which shows a typical “enhanced well + optical barrier” distribution. The SRIM’2006 code is carried out to simulate the energy loss during the implantation in order to obtain a better understanding of the waveguide formation.