RF - Sputtering Fabrication of Flexible SiO2/hfO2 Glass-based 1D Photonic Crystals and Planar Waveguides

While conventional photonic devices are fabricated on rigid substrates, integration of glass systems on deformable substrates has given birth to flexible photonics, a research field which has rapidly emerged in recent years. However, a careful design of the structures, selecting of the materials and the development of a suitable fabrication protocol are required. RF-sputtering deposition protocols are here developed for the fabrication of SiO2/HfO2 glass-based 1D photonic crystals and planar waveguides on flexible polymeric and glass substrates. 1D multilayer structures, made up on SiO2 and HfO2 films, were first modelled by Transfer Matrix Methods and then fabricated by RF-sputtering technique on different substrates. The optical features of the samples were investigated to highlight as the different nature of the substrates and the mechanical deformations of the samples do not influence the transmittance of the samples.