Mach-Zehnder polymer waveguides fabricated using proton beam writing

Miura, Kenta*; Sato, Takahiro; Ishii, Yasuyuki; Koka, Masashi; Kiryu, Hiromu*; Ozawa, Yusuke*; Takano, Katsuyoshi*; Okubo, Takeru; Yamazaki, Akiyoshi; Kada, Wataru; Yokoyama, Akihito; Kamiya, Tomihiro; Hanaizumi, Osamu*

In this study, a PMMA-based MZ waveguide was fabricated utilizing PBW to develop a thermo-optic switch. A 10-m-thick PMMA film was firstly spin-coated onto the 15 m SiO film as the under cladding. Cores of a MZ waveguide with 8 m width were secondary drawn at the dose of 100 nC/mm in the PMMA film using PBW with H beam of the size of 1.1 m and beam current of 50 pA at 1.7 MeV. The MZ waveguide was drawn by symmetrically coupling two Y junctions and its branching angle was set to 2 to reduce optical branching loss. Finally a 10-m-thick PMMA film was deposited again on the sample as an upper cladding by spin-coating. The mode-field diameter of near field patterns with about 10 m width was observed at = 1.55 m on the basis of a fundamental mode without no higher-order modes which required to develop our objective MZ type thermo-optic switch for optical-fiber telecommunication. The result of the observation showed that the PMMA-based single-mode MZ waveguide for = 1.55 m was successfully fabricated using PBW. As the next step to develop the optical switch, we will form a Ti thin-film heater and A electrodes on the MZ waveguide using photolithography and wet-etching processes.