Disperse Red 1-doped solgel planar waveguides for nonlinear optical devices operating at telecommunications wavelengths

We report on linear and nonlinear optical properties of Disperse Red 1-doped solgel waveguides. The refractive-index and optical-propagation losses of the guiding layer were measured between 0.756 mum and 1.64 Am. The spectral broadening of the chromophore charge-transfer transition in the visible is modeled with a Voigt-profile function. In the telecommunications window the attenuation is dominated by the overtones of the O-H bonds vibration bands. The nonlinear optical coefficients were measured at different poling strengths with the Maker-fringe method. The nonlinear coefficient d(33) was found to be 4.5 pm V-1 at 1.58 mum for a poling field of 60 V mum(-1). (C) 2001 Optical Society of America