Very low loss reactively ion etched Tellurium Dioxide planar rib waveguides for linear and non-linear optics

Abstract

We report on the fabrication and optical properties of the first very low loss nonlinear Tellurite planar rib waveguides ever demonstrated. A new reactive ion etch process based on Hydrogen as the active species was developed to accomplish the low propagation losses. Optical losses below ~0.05dB/cm in most of the NIR spectrum and ~0.10dB/cm at 1550nm have been achieved - the lowest ever reported by more than an order of magnitude and clearly suitable for planar integrated devices. We demonstrate strong spectral broadening of 0.6ps pulses in waveguides fabricated from pure TeO2, in good agreement with simulations.