Low temperature electron cyclotron resonance plasma technique for low lossintegrated optics

Electron Cyclotron Resonance (ECR) plasma deposition process implies low te mperatures at high deposition rates producing uniform and mechanically stab le thin films. For these reasons ECR became an attractive tool for integrat ed optics technology. In this work we have combined ECR with other techniqu es as Reactive Ion Etching (RIE) and Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD), in orde r to develop a new fabrication method of channel waveguides. We report here results on alumina-based strip-loaded waveguides. Amorphous Al2O3 core of 0.7 mu m were deposited over Si/SiO2 substrate by PLD technique and overcla dded with a 0.5 mu m SiO2-ECR film. Standard UV-photolitographic techniques and RIE were used to define a set of strips on the SiO2. These strips give the additional confinement of the light in the Al2O3 core. The optical los ses at 633 nm were measured using an imaging technique. The relative scatte red light power as function of the propagation along the channels shows a m aximum optical loss of 4.5 dB/cm.