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 μm and 1.64 μm. The spectral broadening of the chromophore charge-transfer transition in the visible is modeled with a Voigt-proflle 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 μm for a poling field of 60 V μm-1. © 2001 Optical Society of America