FABRICATION OF POLY(VINYL CARBAZOLE) WAVE-GUIDES BY OXYGEN-ION IMPLANTATION

Polymer waveguides were fabricated by ion implantation involving poly( vinyl carbazole) films. This material was implanted by oxygen ions (O+) of energies ranging from 50 to 250 keV. The ion doses Varied from 1 0(10) to 10(15) ions/cm(2). The conventional prism-film coupler method was used to determine the waveguiding nature of the implanted and uni mplanted films. The increase of the surface refractive index in the im planted layer has been studied by measuring the effective refractive i ndex (n(eff)) for different optical modes. Electron spectroscopy chemi cal analysis measurements were also performed to assess the effect of ion implantation on the polymer matrix.