[13a-N103-1~9] 3.14 Optical control devices and optical fibers

[13a-N103-6] [Young Scientist Presentation Award Speech] Fabrication of Infrared-Light-Induced Self-Written Waveguide and Its Application to Silicon photonics

〇Hidetaka Terasawa¹, Okihiro Sugihara¹ (1.Utsunomiya Univ.)

Keywords:silicon photonics, polymer optical waveguide, photocurable resin

We have successfully demonstrated light-induced self-written (LISW) waveguides at wavelengths of 1.07 μm to 1.55 μm. We used an acrylate monomer, a radical generator, a co-initiator and a infrared (IR) photosensitive dye. The IR photosensitive dye shows light absorption in the IR region that covers wavelength from 0.75 μm to 1.6 μm. We mixed the acrylate monomer, the radical generator, the co-initiator and the IR photosensitive dye to obtain a IR photosensitive resin mixture. First, we performed a pre-UV exposure by a UV mercury lamp as a result of an increase in the viscosity of the resin mixture. Therefore, we can avoid bending of the LISW waveguide. After the pre-UV process, we irradiated resin mixture with a IR continuous wave (CW) laser light, so that a straight polymer optical waveguide was formed. We experimentally confirmed that the microwatt level photopolymerization threshold value was obtained at 1.07 μm to 1.55 μm wavelengths. We believe that this technique will be useful for interconnection optical devices, especially in the field of silicon photonics.