Development of a low-cost silica-titania optical platform for integrated photonics applications
Muhammad Ali Butt, Cuma Tyszkiewicz, Paweł Karasiński, Magdalena Zięba, Daria Hlushchenko, Tomasz Baraniecki, Andrzej Kaźmierczak, Ryszard Piramidowicz, M. Guzik, Alicja Bachmatiuk
Abstract
This paper investigates a highly attractive platform for an optical waveguide system based on silica-titania material. The paper is organized into two parts. In the first part, an experimental study on the development of an optical waveguide system is conducted via the sol-gel dip-coating method, and the optical characterization of the waveguide system is performed at a visible wavelength. This system is capable of operating from visible to near-IR wavelength ranges. The experimental results prove the dominance of this waveguide platform due to its low-cost, low loss, and easy to develop integrated optics systems. The numerical analysis of a one-dimensional Photonic crystal waveguide optical filter based on the silica-titania platform is considered in the second part of the paper by utilizing the 2D-finite element method (2D-FEM). A Fabry-Perot structure is also analyzed for refractive index sensing applications. We believe that the results presented in this work will be valuable in the realization of low-cost photonic integrated circuits based on the silica-titania platform.