Deposited silica waveguide for intergrated optical circuits

Abstract

Embedded single and multimode waveguides on fused quartz substrates have been fabricated by high-speed silica deposition and accurate reactive sputter etching by a C2F6 gas plasma. These waveguides have rectangular cross sections with an aspect ratio close to unity. Total waveguide loss was approximately 5 dB/cm, and absorption loss measured by laser calorimetry at 637-nm wavelength was less than 0.1 dB/cm.