WAVE-GUIDES IN LITHIUM IODATE BY MEANS OF PROTON IMPLANTATION

Planar waveguides are built up (around 300 K) in lithium iodate by mea ns of proton implantation. The waveguide properties are investigated b y a prism coupling technique (m-lines spectroscopy). Both TE and TM mo des are used to investigate the ordinary and extraordinary indices. Th e reconstructed index profiles obtained with inverse WKB method, are c ompared to the ion concentration profile as determined by simulation ( TRIM). All the measured effective index values are smaller than these of the bulk indice. Moreover, the optical barrier is relevant to a max imum index change of about 0.03.