Ion-Implanted Glass Waveguides: A Review

As a well-known technique for material modification, ion implantation has become an effective method to fabricate waveguide in optical glasses. The guiding structures can be accurately controlled by the adjustment of the species, energies and fluences of the implanted ions. In the present work, we review the results of up-to-date research on the fabrication, characterization and applications of the ion-implanted waveguides in various optical glasses. The ion-implanted glass waveguides have shown good guiding performance as well as properties with respect to the bulks, suggesting promising potential for many aspects of photonics.