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US 6,640,039 B1Granted
Optical waveguide array and method of manufacturing the same
AssigneeCentral Glass Company, Limited
InventorsKiyotaka Miura, Yuki Kondo, Kazuyuki Hirao
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AssigneeCentral Glass Company, Limited
InventorsKiyotaka Miura, Yuki Kondo, Kazuyuki Hirao
Estimating the term…
A glass containing one or more of metal microparticles, semiconductor microparticles, transition metal ion, rare earth ion and anion with characteristic absorption in a wavelength region longer than 360 nm is irradiated with a pulsed laser beam condensed at a focal point preset in an inner part of the glass. The condensed irradiation induces change of a refractive index as well as decrease of characteristic absorption in the wavelength region longer than 360 nm at the focal point. Such the domain is continuously formed by relatively shifting the focal point with respect to the glass. The continuous domains serve as optical waveguides, since optical properties are greatly different between the irradiated part and the non-irradiated part.
An optical waveguide array comprising a glass matrix which contains one or more absorbing materials selected from the group consisting of metal microparticles, semiconductor microparticles, transition metal ion, rare earth ion and an anion, and having a plurality of domains each continuously formed in said glass matrix by irradiation with a pulsed laser beam condensed at a focal point preset in an inner part of said glass matrix to induce change of a refractive index as well as decrease of characteristic absorption in a wavelength region for the visible range.
A method of fabricating an optical waveguide array, which comprises the steps of:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.