Continuous-wave Nd-doped polymer lasers.

Continuous-wave laser operation at 1060.2 nm was demonstrated in polymer channel waveguides doped with a Nd complex above an absorbed pump threshold of 50 mW. The highest slope efficiency of 2.

Neodymium-complex-doped photodefined polymer channel waveguide amplifiers.

Channel waveguides based on a polymer, 6-fluorinated-dianhydride/epoxy, which is actively doped with a Nd complex, Nd(thenoyltrifluoroacetone)(3) 1,10-phenanthroline, are fabricated by a simple and reproducible procedure, spin coating a photodefinable cladding polymer onto a thermally oxidized silicon wafer, photopatterning, backfilling with the active core polymer, and spin coating with an upper cladding layer. Photoluminescence at 1060 nm from the Nd(3+) ions with a lifetime of 130 mus is observed. Optical gain at 1060 nm is demonstrated in channel waveguides with different Nd(3+) concentrations.

Experimental study of bent multimode optical waveguides.

Bend losses of bent multimode waveguides have been experimentally studied. The results experimentally verify a simple analytical expression based on ray optics that can be used to determine bend losses in bent multimode waveguides. We have also shown that bend-induced losses in such multimode optical waveguides are wavelength independent.