The realization of integrated active optical systems is crucial for the use of components such as amplifiers, lasers or photodetectors on a chip. Alumina (Al2O3) doped with erbium is a promising material for the realization of various active functions. Indeed, the low propagation losses of Al2O3, the rare earth compatibility and its wide transmission band makes Al2O3 suitable for a wide range of applications. Nevertheless, current methods for producing such waveguides are often costly and difficult, requiring complex and potentially loss-making processing steps like etching. In this context, Pulsed Laser Deposited (PLD) combined with lift-off is a relevant method for avoiding etchings. The process is composed of three main steps: photolithography, PLD and lift-off. In this work, we present how the different steps have to be optimized to make suitable waveguides for light propagation. Notably, photolithography needs a precise cross-section profile to obtain smooth sidewall, to ease lift-off and get high resolution patterning. For PLD, SEM images showed the importance of plume directivity and orientation in the PLD chamber to achieve a good control of the waveguide shapes. Finally, we also have shown that the Erbium photoluminescence is dependent on the annealing temperature. These results highlight the essential parameters which need to be precisely controlled to achieve accurate microstructures by liftoff processing performed in PLD layers, paving the way for the demonstration of low-loss waveguides and fully integrated erbium laser without etching.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.