Fabrication and characterization glass-based integrated optical power splitter

Aimed at applications in optical fiber communication network,cascaded Y-shaped 1×8 integrated optical splitters were designed and fabricated in glass substrate by a two-step Ag+-Na+ ion-exchange technology.Key properties of these devices,namely insertion loss,wavelength sensitivity of insertion loss,and aging resistance were tested.Results show that insertion loss and their uniformity of 1×8 devices are of typical value 10.3 dB and 0.67 dB,respectively.Insertion loss is not sensitive to wavelength over the wavelength range 1 260-1 650 nm.Insertion loss variation is less than 0.1 dB after aging test.All of these properties can meet technological requirement specified in Bellcore GR-1209,and are comparable to the corresponding value of fiber type splitter and SiO2 based integrated optical splitter commercially available.