POLYMER THIN FILM OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE.

Polymer materials are some of the most promising substances for optical IC's because of their easy fabrication. Copolymers of glycidyl methacrylic acid and methyl methacrylic acid, to which cinnamic acid was added as a dopant, have been used to fabricate an optical waveguide; a large refractive index change was obtained by an optochemical reaction of the dopant with the epoxy rings of GMA. Eventually, a refractive index change as large as 2% was achieved. Single-mode optical waveguides with various widths were fabricated by means of the present method, and the dependence of the loss on the waveguide width and the loss in a bend were measured.