Nitrogen-ion-implanted planar optical waveguides in Er-doped tellurite glass: Fabrication and characterization

Fabrication of channel waveguides in Er-doped tungsten-tellurite glasses was recently demonstrated. In order to get a deeper understanding of the process and to optimize the characteristics of the waveguides, we fabricated a set of planar waveguides, each of 7 mm × 7 mm lateral dimensions, in an Er-doped tellurite glass sample by implantation of 1.5 MeV nitrogen ions. Doses of the implanting ions ranged from 1 · 10 16 to 8 ·10 16 ions/cm 2. The samples were studied using interference phase contrast microscopy (Interphako), m-line spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry. The results show that a barrier layer of reduced refractive index was created around the range of the implanted ions at every dose. It is hoped that combination of the results obtained in these experiments with simulations for channel waveguides will make it possible to optimize ion-implanted fabrication of integrated optical components in this tellurite glass.