The stability of high refractive index polymer materials for high-density planar optical circuits

Owing to the structural flexibility, easy processing and fabrication capabilities, polymers are being increasingly attractive for a variety of optical applications. In order to increase the integration density of such optical circuits, higher index contrasts and, thus, polymers with considerably higher refractive index are essentially needed. An organometallic polymer and a conventional epoxy material are combined to form a compatible high index material. When cured at elevated temperatures, the organometallic polymer decomposes to form a highly dispersed metal oxide phase that imparts high index properties to the polymer films. These hybrid high refractive index polymer films must be stable in patterning of optical waveguide structure for photonic manufacturing. In this paper, we report the stability and optical characterization study of a modified organometallic high refractive index polymer film in manufacturing of optical waveguide devices. (C) 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.