Abstract

Noncrystalline polymers are suitable as a low cost and high-power optical waveguide material because they have little optical damage. Optical waveguides with large core and high-A (LCHD) are effective for a high-power application, because of low power density and easy assembly. High optical power is necessary for driving an optical amplifier¹ or optical devices with nonlinear optical effects or light-to-heat conversion.² To couple these devices utilizing the waveguide, out-of-plane branching mirrors are useful (Fig. 1). These mirrors are also applicable to the coupling of optical fiber or OEIC chips³ with the optical waveguide. A channel waveguide and the mirror are usually fabricated by different mask processes.⁴ These complicated processes require precise mask alignment procedure. In this report, we propose a process of simultaneously fabricating out-of-plane branching mirrors and polymer channel waveguides from a slab structure by reactive ion etching (RIE).

© 1995 Optical Society of America