Photochemical Laser Technology for integrated-optical components of polymer basis

摘要

In this paper a technology is presented for photochemical modification of polymers by UV laser irradiation. By this UV photon-induced modification process the optical properties of the irradiated polymer surface can be changed in a controllable way. For the UV laser treatment with different UV wavelengths (193 nm and 248 nm) PMMA was used as an UV-modifiable model polymer with good optical properties. The exact modification mechanism has been clarified by various spectroscopic methods like QMS, FTIR and XPS. The local modification of the refractive index by UV laser irradiation permits the fabrication of a wide range of integrated-optical components like strip waveguides, power splitters and Bragg-gratings. These basic integrated-optical elements are crucial for the realization of dispersive components like WDM, which have a wide application in the optical sensor and information technology. Some of the optical and functional properties like loss rate or mode propagation of some as prepared integrated-optical components have been investigated and are discussed in this paper.