Fabrication of defocus graded-index optical waveguide for evanescent wave optical amplifier

This is the first report on an evanescent wave optical amplifier with a plastic waveguide that can amplify a CW signal transmitted by a plastic optical fiber. The waveguide with a concave refractive index distribution was fabricated by an interfacial-gel polymerization technique. Since the waveguide increases the number of reflections at the boundary surface of the waveguide and the laser dye solution, the enhancement of amplification efficiency can be realized. The function of the fabricated waveguide was confirmed by calculations and experiments. The obtained results indicate that the fabricated fiber generated a larger evanescent field than the waveguide without a refractive index distribution.