Testing of active optical waveguides obtained by diluted silver exchange in Er-doped soda lime silicate glass

The spectroscopic features of a highly erbium-doped soda-lime silicate glass designed for the fabrication of integrated optic amplifiers and lasers through the ion exchange process were measured. Spectroscopic analysis of the bulk glass was carried out by considering first glass with higher Er concentration. The propagation constants were measured by dark-line spectroscopy and the refractive index profile was derived from the experimental data at lower wavelengths. Channel waveguides were also produced by using photolithographic process and aluminium masking with same exchange parameters adopted for planar waveguides.