Gratings in indium oxide film overlayers on ion-exchanged waveguides by excimer laser micromachining

Relief Bragg gratings were imprinted by 248 nm interferometric excimer laser ablation on potassium ion-exchanged channel waveguides in BK-7 glass overlaid with a thin high-index InOx film. Using five pulses of energy density 60 mJ/cm(2), a spectral transmittance notch of depth 66% and Delta lambda (FWHM)<0.1 nm was obtained at 1547 nm in the TE polarization for a waveguide having a nominal width of 8 mum and a 135-nm-thick InOx overlayer. In waveguides coated with 100 nm InOx, with widths increasing from 3 to 8 mum, the reflection wavelength shifted by 0.12 nm/mum and the reflectivity increased monotonically. (C) 2001 American Institute of Physics.