Fabrication of waveguides in sputtered films of GeAsSe glass via photodarkening with above bandgap light

We have fabricated and characterized waveguides in thin films of Ge 5 As 34 Se 61 glass sputtered onto silicon wafer substrates. The 5-μm width waveguides were fabricated by exposure to 514.5 nm light from an Ar 3+ laser, with a lithographic exposure mask used to provide the lateral patterning for the waveguides. The measured losses of the waveguides ranged from 3.5 to 6.4 dB/cm. From SEM imaging, we concluded that scattering from microcracks at the glass–substrate interface was the dominant source of loss.