Polymer Waveguide Amplifiers
type: CreativeWork
description: Polymer-based optical waveguides are a promising technology for integrating optical links onto standard printed circuit boards as they enable cost-effective manufacturing and assembly as well as offer high bandwidth. The motivation for this work is to address the lack of amplifying components the currently demonstrated polymer interconnects, which limits the complexity, functionality and reach of these systems. This dissertation studies combination of rare-earth-doped material with polymer platform to create compact erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers (EDWAs) for board-level interconnect applications. Siloxane polymer materials developed by Dow Corning are used as they have shown the necessary optical, mechanical and thermal properties required for EDWA designs (such as the ability to withstand temperatures in excess of 350 °C). The feasibility of two approaches for integrating Er-doped materials into siloxane polymer layers is investigated, namely: (i) ultrafast laser plasma implantation (ULPI) and (ii) solution-based dispersion of Er-doped nanoparticles (NP). Er-doped thin films are prepared with these two methods and their properties investigated. The maximum dopant concentrations and lifetimes are determined to be 16.3, 4.4 and 1.5 × 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$ and 12.1, 4.2 and 5.7 ms for ULPI into silica glass, ULPI into polymer and the dispersion of erbium NPs in a polymer matrix, respectively. An EDWA numerical modelling framework is developed to optimise the erbium-ytterbium ratio to maximise the device gain while accounting for various potential integration methods and waveguide design parameters. Using a channel geometry based on the measured optical properties of Er-doped glass, an internal gain of 9.6 dB/cm is predicted at the optimal Er:Yb ratio of 9.0:7.3 × 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$ when pumped at an optical power of 200 mW. A hybrid, polymer-glass strip-loaded design is proposed to combine the highly doped glass layer with the polymer material. While a slightly lowe…
abstract: Polymer-based optical waveguides are a promising technology for integrating optical links onto standard printed circuit boards as they enable cost-effective manufacturing and assembly as well as offer high bandwidth. The motivation for this work is to address the lack of amplifying components the currently demonstrated polymer interconnects, which limits the complexity, functionality and reach of these systems. This dissertation studies combination of rare-earth-doped material with polymer platform to create compact erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers (EDWAs) for board-level interconnect applications. Siloxane polymer materials developed by Dow Corning are used as they have shown the necessary optical, mechanical and thermal properties required for EDWA designs (such as the ability to withstand temperatures in excess of 350 °C). The feasibility of two approaches for integrating Er-doped materials into siloxane polymer layers is investigated, namely: (i) ultrafast laser plasma implantation (ULPI) and (ii) solution-based dispersion of Er-doped nanoparticles (NP). Er-doped thin films are prepared with these two methods and their properties investigated. The maximum dopant concentrations and lifetimes are determined to be 16.3, 4.4 and 1.5 × 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$ and 12.1, 4.2 and 5.7 ms for ULPI into silica glass, ULPI into polymer and the dispersion of erbium NPs in a polymer matrix, respectively. An EDWA numerical modelling framework is developed to optimise the erbium-ytterbium ratio to maximise the device gain while accounting for various potential integration methods and waveguide design parameters. Using a channel geometry based on the measured optical properties of Er-doped glass, an internal gain of 9.6 dB/cm is predicted at the optimal Er:Yb ratio of 9.0:7.3 × 10$^{20}$ cm$^{-3}$ when pumped at an optical power of 200 mW. A hybrid, polymer-glass strip-loaded design is proposed to combine the highly doped glass layer with the polymer material. While a slightly lowe…
author: Ziarko, Marcin Wojciech
language: en
keywords: polymer, Erbium-doped, EDWA, EDPWA, Erbium-doped waveguide amplifier, Erbium-doped polymer waveguide amplifier
license: https://apollo8-f-pro.lib.cam.ac.uk/bitstreams/786d72af-cb5f-4495-ab26-df26932cfeb7/download
license: https://www.rioxx.net/licenses/all-rights-reserved/
date published: 2020-04-26
date modified: 2026-07-22T22:24:10Z
provider: Cambridge University
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: University of Cambridge

PropertyValue
property ID: DOI
value: 10.17863/CAM.48587