Rizwan Ali

By Muhammad Rizwan Saleem and Rizwan Ali

This chapter deals with the advances in polymeric waveguide gratings for filtering and integrated optics applications. Optical polymer materials are widely used for planar and corrugated micro-optical waveguide grating structures ranging from down a micrometer to several hundred micrometers. Light in a polymeric waveguide is transmitted in discrete modes whose propagation orders depend on incident wavelength, waveguide dimensional parameters, and material properties. Diffracted optical structures are permittivity-modulated microstructures whose micro-relief surface profiles exhibit global/local periodicity. The resonant nature and location of such globally periodic structures (diffraction gratings) excite leaky waveguide modes which couple incident light into reflected/transmitted plane wave diffraction orders. It describes design & analysis, fabrication, and characterization of sub-wavelength polymer grating structures replicated in different polymeric materials (polycarbonate, cyclic olefin copolymer, Ormocomp) by a simple, cost-effective, accurate, and large scale production method. The master stamp (mold) for polymer replication is fabricated with an etchless process with smooth surface profile.

Part of the book: Emerging Waveguide Technology