High Performance Polymeric Optical Waveguide Devices

고성능 폴리머 광도파로 소자

Variable optical attenuators (VOA) made of low-loss fluorinated polymers are demonstrated which shows a low operating power less than 30 mW due to the superior thermo-optic effect of polymer material and a low insertion loss less than 1.0 dB by incorporating highly fluorinated polymers to reduce the absorption loss at 1550 nm. An attenuator-integrated low-crosstalk polymeric digital optical switch (DOS) is also demonstrated. The switch and attenuator shares a single connected electrode which is controlled by a single current source. Due to the simple structure of the integrated attenuator, the device length is reduced to 1 cm so as to provide low insertion loss of 0.8 and 1.1 dB for 1300 and 1550 nm, respectively. The attenuator radiates remained optical signal on the switch-off branch in order to decrease the switching crosstalk to be less than -70 dB with an applied electrical power of 200 mW.