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Published in:
2007 | OriginalPaper | Chapter
43. Glasses for Photonic Integration
Author : Ray DeCorby, M.Sc.
Published in: Springer Handbook of Electronic and Photonic Materials
Publisher: Springer US
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Abstract
Inorganic glasses are the workhorse materials of optics and photonics. In addition to offering a range of transparency windows, glasses provide flexibility of processing for the realization of fibers, films, and shaped optical elements. Traditionally, the main role of glass has been as a passive material. However, a significant attribute of glasses is their ability to incorporate dopants such as nanoparticles or active ions. Hence, glasses promise to play an increasingly important role in active photonics, as laser, amplification, switching, and nonlinear media.
For photonic integration, many of the attributes of glasses are particularly compelling. Glasses allow numerous options for thin film deposition and integration on arbitrary platforms. The possibility of controlling the viscosity of a glass during processing can be exploited in the realization of extremely low loss microphotonic waveguides, photonic crystals, and microcavities. The metastable nature of glass can enable the direct patterning of photonic elements by energetic beams.
This chapter provides an overview of these unique properties of glasses, from the perspectives of the technology options they afford and the practical limitations they present. Further, an overview is provided of the main families of glassy inorganic films studied for integrated optics. Finally, the main features of rare earth doped glasses are reviewed, with an emphasis on their potential for implemention of compact integrated light sources and amplifiers.