OPTICAL WAVE-GUIDE LOSSES OF PZT THIN-FILMS WITH VARIOUS ZR TI STOICHIOMETRIES/

Sol-gel derived PZT thin films were spincoated on Coming 7059 glass su bstrates and fired to temperatures ranging from 500C to 600C for 30 mi n. The PZT compositions consisted of PZT x/y where x/y = 0/100, 20/80, 35/65, 53/47, 65/35, 80/20 and 100/0. Only single coated films were u sed since multiple coatings led to higher losses. XRD was used to char acterize the phase assembly of the fired films and indicated that film s with higher Zr contents contained proportionally more pyrochlore; wh ile films with higher Ti contents have higher perovskite contents. W-V IS spectroscopy was utilized to obtain the transmission and optical pr operties(refractive index and extinction coefficient) via the envelope method. Waveguide losses were measured using prism coupling at the 63 3 nm HeNe laser wavelength. The waveguide losses in the PZT films rang ed from 1.3 to 2.0 dB/cm. The surface texture or morphology of the fil ms significantly affected the optical losses as striated films gave lo sses of 2.7 to 3.3 dB/cm. The relatively low losses of the PZT films, together with their high values of refractive indices (2.1 to 2.7) mak e them highly attractive as waveguides in integrated optics.