A comparative study of the dopant profiles in diffused planar optical waveguides by SIMS and guided wave probe

A technique has been developed for dopant concentration depth profiling using static Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS), and an ex-situ ion milling facility to produce “tapers” through the region of interest of an optical waveguide sample. Results have been obtained for titanium-diffused optical waveguides in lithium niobate and for potassium and caesium ion-exchanged glass waveguides. The SIMS profiles have been compared with refractive index profiles in multimode structures. The refractive index profiles have been obtained from the waveguide mode spectra by a piecewise linear Wentzel-Kramers-Brillouin (WKB) method. The two profiles are in close agreement. Use of the SIMS technique for single mode Ti∶LiNbO₃ waveguides has revealed significant changes in the forms of the profiles, compared with deeper structures, and we suggest a mechanism to account for these changes.