INFRARED OPTICAL CHANNEL WAVEGUIDING IN A NONLINEAR OPTICAL POLYMER

Nonlinear optical polymers are promising materials for use in future high speed optical signal processing devices. The development of integrated optical waveguides using one such polymer, 9-SMBU polydiacetylene, is described. This material has a large third order nonlinearity and is processable into large area thin films. Optical characterization of such films has been carried out in the near-infra-red and this has demonstrated the trade-off between material processability and nonlinearity. The material has also been deposited in channels etched in silicon oxynitride substrates which allows the demonstration of channel optical waveguiding in a nonlinear polymer.