<title>Siloxane materials for optical applications</title>

Abstract

Siloxanes, which can be viewed as hybrids of glass and organic materials, have been used to fabricate polymer waveguides and devices that exploit the large thermo-optical effect of this material. Siloxanes have many unique properties including good thermal stability, chemical resistance, tunable refractive index, tunable mechanical properties and excellent photo-stability. The refractive index of siloxane polymer is composition dependent and generally ranges from 1.4 to 1.54. Introduction of porosity or composition modification can further expand refractive index range to 1.15~1.63. The loss and absorption characteristics for a variety of silicone-based polymers are examined and an example of a UV curable polymer coating illustrates the flexibility of the silicone polymer family to be tailored to meet specific application needs.