Optical parametric amplification in composite polymer/ion exchanged planar waveguide

A simple hybrid polymer/ion exchanged planar optical waveguiding structure has been fabricated which allows us to realize phase matching between different guided modes without any corrugation or modulation of the structure. A nonlinear polymer is deposited on top of glass substrate with a waveguide realized by the ion-exchange technique. Efficient optical parametric amplification is demonstrated for a pump at 532 nm and a signal at 814 nm. A 1 dB internal optical gain is achieved after propagation on 5 mm, with a pump power of 15 kW/mm.