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1994
Conference Paper
Titel
Plasma-deposited fluorocarbon coatings for passive and active integrated optical devices
Abstract
Amorphous fluorocarbon polymers are attractive materials for optical applications because of their high transparency at wavelengths up to 3 mu m due to the absence of C-H bonds. DuPont's amorphous fluoropolymer Teflon AF has been available since 1989, and Teflon AF films can be fabricated by spin, spray, or dip coating from solution or by use of compression or injection moulding from the melt. An alternative and promising route for processing fluorocarbon films is the use of a low-pressure plasma. This technique can be employed for plasma polymerization of suitable fluorocarbon monomers and for controlled etching of fluorocarbon materials. In the present work, we present the characteristics of plasma-polymerized tetrafluoroethylene layers with a refractive index of approximately 1.4. Reactive ion etching in an N2O plasma is used for patterning these layers, and also the spin-coated Teflon AF films with a refractive index of around 1.3. The possibility of fabricating passive and active polymer waveguide devices from fluorocarbon polymers is discussed, and estimates of expected waveguide performance are presented.
Language
English
Tags
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integrated optics
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optical fabrication
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optical films
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optical polymers
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optical waveguide components
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plasma deposited coatings
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polymer films
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polymerisation
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refractive index
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sputter etching
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transparency
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plasma-deposited fluorocarbon coatings
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passive integrated optical devices
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active integrated optical devices
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amorphous fluorocarbon polymers
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polymer waveguide devices
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dupont teflon af amorphous fluoropolymer
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spin-coated teflon af films
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spin coating
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spray coating
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dip coating
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compression moulding
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injection moulding
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fluorocarbon polymers
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low-pressure plasma processing
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plasma polymerization
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fluorocarbon monomers
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plasma etching
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plasma-polymerized tetrafluoroethylene layers
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reactive ion etching
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n2o plasma patterning
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3 micron
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n2o