ATTENUATION, SCATTERING, AND ABSORPTION PROPERTIES OF LIGHT-EMITTING PLANAR WAVE-GUIDES

Attenuation, scattering, and absorption coefficients of planar wavegui des which contain light emitting areas are investigated by analysis of the lateral intensity distribution of the light scattered out from re gions of the waveguides surrounding the active areas. Short attenuatio n lengths require an experimental method without the use of coupling p risms. This method was succesfully applied to a set of thin film elect roluminescent devices. Additionally, the outcoupling efficiency of the devices was determined only using this optical method. i.e. independe ntly of other efficiency measurements. It is shown that the separation of scattering from absorption processes allows a quantitative analysi s of the influence of the preparation conditions on the optical device parameters.