Birefringence in Injection-Molded Cyclic Olefin Copolymer Substrates and Its Impact on Integrated Photonic Structures

Author:

Kefer Stefan1ORCID,Limbach Tobias1,Pape Natalie1,Klamt Kathrin2,Schmauss Bernhard3ORCID,Hellmann Ralf1

Affiliation:

1. Applied Laser and Photonics Group, Aschaffenburg University of Applied Sciences, Wuerzburger Strasse 45, 63743 Aschaffenburg, Germany

2. Plastic Centre Leipzig, Erich-Zeigner-Allee 44, 04229 Leipzig, Germany

3. Institute of Microwaves and Photonics, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Cauerstrasse 9, 91058 Erlangen, Germany

Abstract

This contribution quantifies the birefringence within injection-molded cyclic olefin copolymer plates and discusses its impact on the mechanical properties of the plates. It also focuses on the impact of birefringence on integrated waveguides and Bragg gratings and provides fabrication guidelines for such structures. The anisotropy in all three dimensions of the workpiece is examined by means of polarimetry and a prism coupler. It is found that the birefringence is inhomogenously distributed within the workpieces, whereas the maximum birefringence not only varies locally, but also depends on the observation direction. Overall, a maximum birefringence of 10 × 10−4 is found at the plate’s surface near the injection gate. The anisotropy then reduces exponentially towards the center of the workpiece and saturates at 1.8 × 10−4, in a depth of 0.4 mm. Thus, the birefringence strongly affects near-surface photonic structures. It is found that, depending on their orientation and the local birefringence of the substrate, waveguides and Bragg gratings fabricated with comparable parameters behave completely differently in terms of polarization-dependent optical attenuation, cross-sectional intensity distribution and Bragg reflection signal. For example, the support of the TM mode can vary between total loss and an optical attenuation of 0.9 dB × cm−1. In consequence, this study underlines the importance of quantifying the birefringent state of an injection-molded cyclic olefin copolymer workpiece if it is supposed to serve as a substrate for integrated photonic structures. The study furthermore demonstrates that birefringence effects can be omitted by burying the photonic structures deeper into the volume of the thermoplastic.

Funder

Bavarian Research Foundation

Publisher

MDPI AG

Reference40 articles.

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