Planar waveguides in x-cut YVO4 crystals were produced by ion-implanted Si+ ions with energies from 2.6 to 3.0 MeV at doses of 1×1013−1.5×1014 ions/cm2. The number of propagation modes varied from 1 to 3 as the doses of the implanted ions increased. The effective refractive indices of all the observed waveguide modes were higher than the refractive index of the substrate, which meant an index-enhanced guiding layer with thickness of ∼2 μm formed to confine the light propagation. The minimum propagation loss of the measured YVO4 waveguide was 0.27 dB/cm after annealing under suitable conditions.
The planar waveguide has been fabricated in a Nd:YVO4 crystal by 3.0 MeV Si+ ion implantation at a dose of 1×1015 ions/cm2 at room temperature. The waveguide was characterized by the prism-coupling method. The dark modes are measured before and after the annealing at 240 °C for 60 min in air. The refractive index profile is reconstructed using reflectivity calculation method. It is found that relatively large positive change of ordinary refractive index happens in the guiding region, which is quite different from most of the observed ion-implanted waveguides. The TRIM’98 code is carried out to simulate the energy loss during the implantation in order to obtain a better understanding for the waveguide formation.
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