Polydimethylsiloxane multimode optical channel waveguides doped with yellow dye fabricated by microdispensing

The paper reports on the properties of polydimethylsiloxane bulk samples and optical multimode channel waveguides doped with yellow dye fabricated by the microdispensing method. The spectral characteristics of the doped polymer bulk samples showed that the transmission of the edge of the spectra shifted towards longer wavelengths and significantly increased the absorption. The refractive index measured by dark mode spectroscopy did not confirm any change in the refractive index depending on the amount of the dye. The optical losses of the channel waveguides were measured by the cut-back method. The measurement showed that the waveguides with the dye-doped core containing 0.01 wt% of the dye had the lowest losses at 850 and 1300 nm, where the average losses were −1.18 dB (at 850 nm) and − 1.06 dB (at 1300 nm). In comparison with undoped samples, dye-doping caused an increase in optical losses by 0.5–1.0 dB/cm.