Stress-induced polymer waveguides operating at both 1.31 and 1.55 µm wavelengths

Metal-defined polymer optical waveguides have been demonstrated for the first time. A metal strip patterned on top of a polymer slab waveguide causes a stress-induced refractive index change, providing lateral optical mode confinement within the core layer. Fabricated waveguides exhibit low propagation loss values of 1.1 dB/cm at 1.31 µm and 1.3 dB/cm at 1.55 µm for both TE and TM polarisations.