Practical, rapid, and process-on-place polymer-free cladding power stripping for high power fiber lasers.

We have studied polymer-free cladding power strippers for high-power fiber laser applications. A practical, rapid, and process-on-place chemical etching technique is presented to form surface roughness for efficient removal of the cladding light. The technique is methodically studied and performance contours are determined for frequently used 130, 250, and 400 µm double-clad fibers. The stripping efficiency and the thermal performance of the fabricated strippers are investigated with respect to such process parameters as etching time and etched fiber length. At least 15 dB attenuation with $ \lt {0.045}(^\circ {\rm C}/{\rm W})$<0.045(∘C/W) thermal slope is demonstrated for all fiber types. To show the power scalability of the proposed technique, ${\sim}{600}\;{\rm W}$∼600W power is stripped with an ultra-low thermal slope of ${\sim}{0.021}(^\circ {\rm C}/{\rm W})$∼0.021(∘C/W) over a 400 µm fiber.

Flip-chip fabrication of nanoscale co-planar embedded electrodes with controlled exposed areas.

We discuss the fabrication of closely spaced nanoscale embedded co-planar electrodes with concealed contact wires, using a GaAs-based flip-chip technology. The co-planarity of the electrodes with the substrate and the low roughness of the exposed surface are achieved by templating the deposition of both the dielectric and electrode metal onto a smooth GaAs substrate. The resulting electrodes, with sizes of around 300 nm and separations as low as 25 nm, have RMS roughnesses of less than 0.2 nm and a co-planarity of around 1 nm.

High-Q silicon-on-insulator optical rib waveguide racetrack resonators.

In this work, detailed design and realization of high quality factor (Q) racetrack resonators based on silicon-on-insulator rib waveguides are presented. Aiming to achieve critical coupling, suitable waveguide geometry is determined after extensive numerical studies of bending loss. The final design is obtained after coupling factor calculations and estimation of propagation loss. Resonators with quality factors (Q) as high as 119000 has been achieved, the highest Q value for resonators based on silicon-on-insulator rib waveguides to date with extinction ratios as large as 12 dB.

High-refractive-index measurement with an elastomeric grating coupler.

An elastomeric grating coupler fabricated by the replica molding technique is used to measure the modal indices of a silicon-on-insulator (SOI) planar waveguide structure. Because of the van der Waals interaction between the grating mold and the waveguide, the elastomeric stamp makes conformal contact with the waveguide surface, inducing a periodic index perturbation at the contact region. The phase of the incident light is changed to match the guided modes of the waveguide. The modal and bulk indices are obtained by measuring the coupling angles. This technique serves to measure the high refractive index with a precision better than 10(-3) and allows the elastomeric stamp to be removed without damaging the surface of the waveguide.