Fabrication of single-mode polymeric optical waveguidesby laser-beam writing

A laser-beam writing system is developed for large-area optical waveguide fabrication. Single-mode embedded channel optical waveguides are successfully fabricated on both 4 and 8 in silicon substrates using deuterated fluoromethacrylate polymers by laser-beam writing in photoresist and dry etching. The propagation loss of the waveguides is as low as 0.1 dB/cm at 1.3 µm.