Solitonic guides in photopolymerizable materials for optical devices

Kokou Dodzi Dorkenoo; Olivier Cregut; Alain Fort

doi:10.1117/12.508153

10 November 2003 Solitonic guides in photopolymerizable materials for optical devices

Kokou Dodzi Dorkenoo, Olivier Cregut, Alain Fort

Proceedings Volume 5212, Linear and Nonlinear Optics of Organic Materials III; (2003) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.508153
Event: Optical Science and Technology, SPIE's 48th Annual Meeting, 2003, San Diego, California, United States

Abstract

These last twenty years, advanced studies in integrated optics have demonstrated the capacity to elaborate optical circuits in planar substrates. Most of the optical integrated devices are realized on glass substrate and the guide areas are usually obtained by photolithography techniques. We present here a new approach based on the use of compounds photopolymerizable in the visible range. The conditions of self written channel creation by solitonic propagation inside the bulk of the photopolymerizable formulation are analyzed. Waveguides can be self-written in photopolymerizable materials1,2 due to the dependence of their refractive index on intensity and duration of the active light. This process results from the competition between the diffraction of the incident Gaussian beam and the photopolymerization which tends to increase the refractive index where light intensity is the highest. By controlling the difference between the refractive index values of the polymerized and non polymerized zones, the beam can be self-trapped along the propagation axis giving rise to a waveguide over distances as large as 10 cm without any broadening. Such permanent waveguides can be structured by inscription of gratings and doped with a dye in a plastic cell leading to the elaboration of a completely plastic laser.

Citation Download Citation

Kokou Dodzi Dorkenoo, Olivier Cregut, and Alain Fort "Solitonic guides in photopolymerizable materials for optical devices", Proc. SPIE 5212, Linear and Nonlinear Optics of Organic Materials III, (10 November 2003); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.508153

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