Studies on passive and active silver-sodium ion-exchanged glass waveguides and devices

In this paper, we review our recent work on exploring and developing new techniques for planar lightwave circuits utilizing silver-sodium ion exchange. In the experiments, two special kinds of glass substrates have been used: aluminoborosilicate glass (also called BGG31) specially developed for passive ion-exchanged waveguides and phosphate glass (commercial name IOG-1) designed for waveguide laser applications. Phosphate glass can be doped with large amounts of rare earth ions without significant lifetime reduction. This enables fabrication of short-cavity waveguide lasers, a desirable feature for example in high-repetition rate modelocked lasers operating at 1550 nm wavelength region. Birefringence properties of buried molten salt ion-exchanged waveguides in BGG31 glass are presented in detail. Photosensitivity properties of both undoped and Er-Yb-codoped IOG-1 glass are discussed. A new approach to fabricate waveguide Bragg gratings through UV exposure in IOG-1 glass will be presented. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.