Fabrication of low-loss, single-mode-channel waveguide with DNA-CTMA biopolymer by multistep processing technology.

A multistep processing and reactive ion etching technique has been developed to fabricate optical channel waveguides based on deoxyribonucleic acid-cetyltrimethylammonium biopolymer material. The channel waveguides exhibit excellent single-mode output and high confinement of light because of the sharp waveguide profile with very smooth surfaces and vertical sidewalls. The measurement results show that these channel waveguides have low propagation losses and small polarization dependent losses at 633, 1310, and 1550 nm wavelengths.