Proceedings of SPIE, the International Society for Optical Engineering/Proceedings of SPIE · 1995 · 10 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesMaterials EngineeringMaterials ScienceOptical MaterialsOpticsPolymer MaterialsOptical PolymersOptical WaveguidesPolymer CharacterizationPolymer StructurePolymer Thin FilmsRefractive IndexAcrylic Optical PolymersDiffraction GratingsExposure Time DependenceOptical SplittersPolymer WaveguidesRefractive Index ProfileSpectral Absorption PropertiesWaveguide Gratings
Samples of PMMA [Poly-(Methyl-Meth-Acrylate)] were modified by ionizing radiation (especially UV-radiation) in order to generate regions of increased refractive index. These waveguiding structures were used to build optical power splitters and optical polarizers simply by varying the exposure time. The refractive index profile and the variation in thickness of the waveguides for different exposure times were observed. Also the cut-off- wavelength and the spectral absorption behavior for different exposure times were measured. The compaction at the surface was used to build up diffraction gratings with grating constants of 4 micrometer to 20 micrometer. By annealing the samples the diffraction efficiency was increased.