Stripe waveguides with matched refractive index profiles fabricated by ion exchange in glass

The paper presents both the theoretical investigation of refractive index profile generation of stripe waveguides by field-assisted ion exchange in glass and a comparison with experimental results obtained by Ag+-Na+ exchange in a special glass type. The internal electric field of a periodical structure of mask openings is calculated and applied to ion-exchange processes through a single mask opening as well as to processes using so-called guard bands. These guard bands are especially suitable for profile matching to step index fibers. Matching to graded index fibers requires burying steps, which are modeled with plausible physical assumptions.