High-Silica Planar Lightwave Circuits

Abstract

The recent progress in planar lightwave circuits based on high-silica waveguides is reviewed. High-silica waveguides are fabricated by a combination of flame hydrolysis glass deposition and reactive ion-etching processes. The planar lightwave circuits recently developed include optical splitters, optical wavelength-insensitive couplers, optical frequency/wavelength division multi/demultiplexers, optical frequency-selection switches, thermo-optic optical switches, and so on. Furthermore, functional optical gate switches are also realized by hybrid integration of passive high-silica waveguide circuits and active optical components.