Characterisation of optical waveguides in BGO crystals fabricated by N + ion implantation

Bismuth germanate crystal (BGO) has gained considerable attention due to its very attractive physical and optical properties. Thanks to its very good radiation length, short decay time, emission efficiency and response linearity, it is widely used as scintillator material for radiation detectors in high-energy physics and in medical diagnostic systems such as PET (positron emission tomography) [1]. It also has a relatively high large electrooptic coefficient (3.3 pm/V) and second and third order non linear properties have been reported [2], which make this material also suitable for many applications in the field of opto-electronic devices. © 2011 IEEE.