Fabrication of an optical polymer waveguide by plasma enhanced polymerization

We have fabricated an optical polymer waveguide using plasma-enhanced polymerization. C6H6 and C6H10) are used as monomer materials for depositing core and cladding layer, respectively, because the refractive index of polymerized layers dominantly depend on the ratio of sp2 and sp3 bond in those. By decreasing rf power less than 0.04 W/cm2 dangling-bonds formed in a polymer film will be suppressed, so that a relative low loss waveguide has been fabricated. We have measured propagation loss of those waveguides in end-fire method by using laser light at 787 nm wavelength. The losses are 3.2 cm-1 for the samples plasma-polymerized in Ar. © 2008 The Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan.