Patent ID: 6208792
Filing Date: 2001-03-27
Classification: G02B,G02F

Abstract:
Article comprising a planar waveguide adapted for guiding radiation of vacuum wavelength .lambda., the planar waveguide having a chalcogenide glass core comprising Se and a member of a group consisting of As, Ge, and As and Ge;CHARACTERIZED IN THATthe chalcogenide glass core further comprises one or more dopant elements selected from a group of elements that cause a change of an optical energy gap E.sub.g of said chalcogenide glass core, the amount of said dopant element being selected such that E.sub.g is equal to or less than a two-photon energy 2h.nu., where h is Planck's constant and .nu.=c/.lambda., where c is the speed of light in vacuum, and wherein the dopant element or elements are furthermore selected such that the chalcogenide glass core has a nonlinear refractive index n.sub.2 greater than 200n.sub.2 (SiO.sub.2), where n.sub.2 (SiO.sub.2) is the nonlinear refractive index of vitreous silica at .lambda..