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Ion Exchange to Fabrication of Waveguides for Optical Telecommunication

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Book cover Ion Exchange Technology I

Abstract

Ion exchange technique in the process of design and fabrication of passive devices for telecommunication has been a procedure to increment the glass refraction index and has received special attention because it improves surface-mechanical properties of glass and, more importantly, creates a wave-guiding region in the glass. Today, glass waveguides are considered to be suitable candidates for passive and active device for the integrated optical (IO) such as couplers, multiplexers, demultiplexers, and others. Their importance is borne out by their compatibility with optical fibers, low cost, low propagation loss, and integration into the system. In this way, with increasing speed of data transmission, the importance of integrated photonic devices and circuits grows. Many research groups have focused in the development of optical amplifier based on Erbium-doped materials since their potential to realize broadband and inherently linear compatible with current technology. This chapter gives an introduction to the ion exchange technique in solid matter, mainly optical glasses. I shall present the main results and equations describing the traditional ion exchange processes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The multicomponent optical glasses used for ion exchange are usually silicate glasses composed of SiO2 and various other oxides. The oxides of monovalent cations such as Na2O, K2O, Li2O, etc., are called the network modifiers, and it is believed that the basic structure of the glass does not change as a result of the binary ion exchange where one of the network modifiers is exchanged with an ion of higher polarizability.

  2. 2.

    The wave propagation along the waveguide axis is described by the wave equation, where the wavelength depends on the waveguide structure as well as on the frequency. Along the width of the waveguide, the wave is confined in a standing wave pattern. The equation that describes the transverse wave form is more complicated and is derived in the case of electromagnetic waves from Maxwell’s, along with boundary conditions that depend on the shape of the waveguide and the materials from which it is made. These equations have multiple solutions, called propagation modes (TE, transversal electric, and TM, transversal magnetic).

  3. 3.

    ERFC is the complementary error function, commonly denoted erfc(z), and is an entire function defined by \( erfc(z) = \tfrac{2}{{\sqrt {\pi } }}\int\limits_z^{\infty } {{{e}^{{ - {{t}^2}}}}dt} \).

  4. 4.

    A single-mode waveguide is a waveguide designed to carry only a single ray of light (mode). This ray of light often contains a variety of different wavelengths. Although the ray travels parallel to the length of the fiber, it is often called the transverse mode since its electromagnetic vibrations occur perpendicular (transverse) to the length of the fiber.

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Acknowledgments

The author would like to thank for the financial support by the Brazilian agencies Fapesp, CNPq, and CEPOF/INOF.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Physics and National Institute of Optical and Photonic (INOF) of São Carlos, University of São Paulo, Caixa Postal 369, São Carlos, SP, 13560-970, Brazil

    Victor Anthony Garcia Rivera

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  1. Victor Anthony Garcia Rivera
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Correspondence to Victor Anthony Garcia Rivera .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Department of Engineering & Technology, Aligarh Muslim University, Aligarh, 202002, India

    Inamuddin Dr.

  2. College of Engineering, Chemical Engineering Department, King Saud University, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

    Mohammad Luqman

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Rivera, V.A.G. (2012). Ion Exchange to Fabrication of Waveguides for Optical Telecommunication. In: Dr., I., Luqman, M. (eds) Ion Exchange Technology I. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-1700-8_14

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