Integrated optical waveguiding structures made by silver ion-exchange in glass 1: The propagation characteristics of stripe ion-exchanged waveguides; a theoretical and experimental investigation

An account of the formation and characterization of stripe waveguides formed by silver/sodium ion exchange is given. It is shown that the variation of effective index with guide width can be predicted with good accuracy using a computer model to both solve the exchange equation to obtain the refractive index profile and to calculate the modes of the resulting structure. It is found that while the use of an anodized aluminum mask results in low-loss waveguides, a metallic mask causes deposition of silver at the edges of the guide. The experimental methods used for aluminum anodization and for characterization of the waveguides are described in detail.