High-index and low loss polyethylene terephatate optical waveguides

Abstract

In this paper, the fabrication and characterization of a high-index low loss polyethylene terephatate (PET) optical waveguide is presented. Dip-coating technique has been used to fabricate the optical waveguide using PET. Various waveguide properties, such as mode effective refractive index, optical loss, dispersion and waveguide thickness as a function of temperature of waveguides and substrates have been reported. Optical losses of as low as 0.7 dB cm )1 waveguides can be obtained if the formation temperature can be controlled between 30 and 35°C. In addition, we suggested that it is a suitable material for optoelectronic waveguide devices.

Fabrication and Characterization of Amorphous Polyethylene Terephthalate Optical Waveguides

“…When a PET film is fabricated by, for example, the spin coating method, the PET film tends to be partially crystallized and clouded during cooling after baking process, which may causes light scattering inside the PET film. In [11], PET films are formed on slide glasses by dip coating followed by baking with the temperature of less than 60 C, and the propagation loss in a slab optical waveguide is measured to be 0.7 dB/cm at 633 nm wavelength. PET-G, which was developed by Eastman Kodak, is a kind of PET copolymerized with 1,4-cyclohexanedimethanol (CHDM), and is widely used as a coating film on integrated circuit (IC) cards.…”