Formation of planar optical waveguide by multi energy Si ion implantation into Nd:YVO4 crystal

The planar waveguides have been fabricated in Nd:YVO4 crystals by single and multi energy Si ion implantation. Optically polished Nd:YVO4 samples were implanted at room temperature by 2.6 MeV Si ions and multi energy (3.0 MeV, 2.6 MeV and 2.2 MeV) Si ions, to the dose of 6 x 10(14) ions/cm(2). The prism-coupling method was carried out to measure the dark modes in the Nd:YVO4 crystal waveguides by using a model 2010 prism coupler. In both waveguides 3 modes were observed before annealing and after annealing the effective refractive index of all these modes gets smaller. The two waveguides show much similarity in prism-coupling results. Reflectivity Calculation Method was applied to fitting the single energy ion implanted waveguide refractive index profile. TRIM'98 (Transport of Ions in Matter) code was used to simulate the damage profile in Nd:YVO4 by a single and multi energy ion implantation, respectively. It is found that the electronic energy loss in ion implantation may play an important role in Nd:YVO4 waveguide formation. (C) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.