Dynamic control of refractive index during pulsed laser deposited waveguide growth

Abstract

Engineering the optical properties of waveguides is important for the optimization of their guided optical mode characteristics. Here, we document the dynamic control of the refractive index and composition of crystalline films, via the substrate temperature, during pulsed-laser-deposition growth of Er(1%)-doped yttrium gallium garnet on <100>-orientated single-crystal yttrium aluminium garnet. An increasing substrate temperature is observed to reduce the gallium content in the grown film, with a corresponding reduction of refractive index. We demonstrate the ability to accurately control the refractive index via this technique and use it to grow a complex multi-core crystal waveguide. Our results highlight the potential of using pulsed laser deposition to fabricate crystal films with bespoke optical properties and thus engineer passive and active waveguide devices in situ.

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Identifiers

ORCID for James Grant-Jacob: orcid.org/0000-0002-4270-4247

ORCID for David P. Shepherd: orcid.org/0000-0002-4561-8184

ORCID for Robert W. Eason: orcid.org/0000-0001-9704-2204

ORCID for Jacob I. Mackenzie: orcid.org/0000-0002-3355-6051

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