Characterization of ion exchanged waveguides in different glasses

Glass integrated optics represents a viable approach to the development of cheap and robust passive components for communication, signal processing and sensing systems. Ion- exchange, in turn, is one of the most widespread technologies for the fabrication of optical waveguides in glass substrates. The choice of the substrate glass may affect critically the performance of waveguides and devices; thus, the results of an extensive characterization of ion- exchanged waveguides fabricated in a number of cheap, common commercial glass slides are reported here, with the aim of assessing the glass quality and therefore providing indications on the most effective substrate for components fabrication. ©2004 Copyright SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering.