Abstract

Rare-earth-ion-doped polymer waveguide amplifiers [1-2] have been studied due to their potential use in integrated optical applications. Neodymium can be of great interest for high-speed amplifiers in optical interconnects, because it emits around 850-930 nm on the ⁴F_3/2 → ⁴I_9/2 ground-state transition. Polymers are promising host candidates in this application due to their low cost, ease of fabrication, and potential integration with polymer waveguides in integrated optical systems, e.g. optical backplanes. In this work, Nd³⁺-complex-doped polymer channel waveguide amplifiers have been realized and gain at 850-930 nm has been demonstrated.

© 2009 IEEE