Deposition and characterization of germanium sulphide glass planar waveguides

Germanium sulphide glass thin films have been deposited on CaF2 and Schott N-PSK58 glass substrates directly by means of chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The deposition rate of germanium sulphide glass film by this CVD process is estimated about 12 mum/hr at 500degreesC. These films have been characterized by micro-Raman spectroscopy, X-ray diffraction (XRD), and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Their transmission range extends from 0.5 mum to 7 mum measured by UV-VIS-NIR and FT-IR spectroscopy. The refractive index of germanium sulphide glass film measured by prism coupling technique was 2.093 +/- 0.008 and the waveguide loss measured at 632.8nm by He-Ne laser was 2.1 +/- 0.3 dB/cm. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.