Fluorinated ether ketone oligomers bearing a crosslinkable ethynyl group at the chain end have been investigated for low-loss polymer optical waveguide devices. These oligomers are designed to achieve low birefringence and were synthesized by the reaction of 4,4Ј-(hexafluoroisopropylidene)diphenol with an excess decafluorobenzophenone, followed by reaction with (phenylethynyl)phenol or ethynylphenol. The molecular weights (M n s) and polydispersities of the oligomers determined by GPC with polystyrene standard are in the range of 6600 -8500 g/mol and 1.79 -2.04, respectively. By spin coating and thermal crosslinking, the polymer solutions easily provide the good optical quality thin films. The cured films show good chemical resistance and high thermal stability up to 460°C under nitrogen. At 1.55 m wavelength, the refractive index and birefringence of the films show in the range of 1.5104 -1.5172 and 0.0078 -0.0014, respectively. The propagation loss of the single-mode channel waveguide was measured to be less than 0.5 dB/cm at 1.55 m.
Wavelength filters with Bragg gratings are demonstrated based on low-loss polymer waveguides and high-refractive-index polymer gratings. Two kinds of fluorinated polymers, perfluorocyclobutane and fluorinated poly(arylene ethers) are used for the low-loss waveguide operating around the 1.55 μm wavelength. The polymer grating is made of Resole, and it is successfully integrated in the polymer waveguides. In order to fabricate the Bragg gratings on the polymer waveguides, we use a phase mask and a Hg lamp in a mask aligner as the illuminating source instead of the laser. This method provides uniform gratings on a large area as well as the alignment capability. In the fabricated wavelength filters, the reflectivity at the Bragg wavelength is 30 dB, the 3 dB bandwidth is as narrow as 0.6 nm, and the insertion loss is 3.7 dB.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.