Manufacture of photonic microdevices in glasses containing niobium and tantalum

Abstract

All-optical photonic devices are currently widely investigated as they allow to improve the overall circuit speed which is limited by response time of electronic devices. Advances are being made in this regard, such as the manufacture of optoelectronic device development and integrating optoelectronic with electronic devices for optoelectronic integrated circuits. Niobium (Brazilian national exploration resource) and tantalum germanate glasses are promising due to their linear and nonlinear optical properties. This BEPE project encompasses the study and non-linear optical characterizations resulting from optical micromachining (already performed in Brazil by femtosecond laser irradiation) and thermal poling (which will be performed at BEPE). A microdevice (using microstructured electrodes by thermal poling) will be manufactured in glass ribbon fiber (pulled in fiber draw tower) and its structural and nonlinear properties of the glasses will be investigated. In this microdevice, a static electric field is implanted in the microstructure due to the migration of alkaline ions, and non-linear second order optical properties could be obtained, such as second harmonic generation (SHG). This project is promising since it involves the preparation of a device in an optimized matrix that has successfully responded to microstructuring by thermal poling by project collaborator Prof. Dr. Gael Poirier. The microdevice manufactured by thermal poling and nonlinear characterizations by micro-SHG(Raman) and Maker fringe technique cannot be obtained from institutions in São Paulo, and will be obtained at the Institute of Chemistry of Condensed Matter of Bordeaux of the University of Bordeaux in France under supervision of Prof. Dr. Thierry Cardinal. This microdevice may be suitable for photonic applications, especially wavelength conversion and electrooptical devices, in addition to the possibility of manufacturing a new photonic crystal. (AU)