Process for Fabricating Buried Optical Waveguides Using Laser Ablation

Abstract

The present invention is concerned with a process for fabricating a buried optical waveguide, comprising providing a multi-layer piece of material having a waveguide core layer, generating a laser beam and producing by ablation at least two trenches by applying the laser beam onto the multi-layer piece of material. The two trenches extend through the multi-layer piece of material including the core layer. Upon the ablation, melted material from the multi-layer piece is produced and the core layer is encapsulated between the two trenches with the melted material to produce the buried optical waveguide in the multi-layer piece of material. The present invention also relates to a buried optical waveguide comprising a multi-layer piece of material having a waveguide core layer, at least two trenches laser ablated through the multi-layer piece of material including the core layer and encapsulating material having melted from the multi-layer piece upon laser ablation and leaked to cover and therefore encapsulate the core layer in the at least two trenches to thereby form the buried optical waveguide.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.