LOW-LOSS ERBIUM-DOPED ION-EXCHANGED CHANNEL WAVE-GUIDES

We report the fabrication of ion-exchanged channel waveguides in an Er-doped Na-modified BK-7 glass. The buried waveguides were elliptical in cross section, having approximate cross-sectional dimensions of 10-mu-m x 30-mu-m. Characterization of the optical properties of the waveguides revealed that they are single mode in the 10-mu-m dimension and multimode in the 30-mu-m dimension and exhibit a total waveguide loss, absorption plus scattering, of 0.8 dB/cm at 0.633-mu-m.