Slab waveguides and nanoscale patterning of pulsed laser-deposited Ge0.2Se0.8 chalcogenide films

Planar slab waveguides were fabricated by pulsed laser deposition from GexSe1-x glass compounds with composition (x similar to 0.2) that lies very close to the floppy to rigid stiffness transition. These high quality active structures, which were deposited on SiO2 cladding layers above silicon substrates, support several transverse-electric (TE) modes, and a loss of 0.24 dB/cm for the TE0 mode was measured at 632.8 nm wavelength. The ability to exploit electron beam writing at these special Ge in Se compositions to create nanoscale surface motifs are promising advances to create unique miniature optical processing devices. (C) 2008 American Institute of Physics.