In this work, polymer waveguide based optical switching devices integrated with visible optical amplifying waveguides based on an organic gain material are designed and fabricated. The gain compound is a red emissive oligomer, with good dispersibility in organic polymer matrices. Optical characteristics and thermal stabilities of the active polymer waveguide core and cladding materials are analyzed. Optical gain of the amplifier operating at 650 nm red signal wavelength with 0.1 mW input power is found to be over 3.5 dB under only 1.6 mW pumping power with 532 nm green excitation light. The on-off response time of the integrated thermo-optic switch applied is measured to be 600 μs, with switching extinction ratio of 20 dB and electric switching power of 18.5 mW. The integrated switching device capable of optical gain will be suitable for applications to optical communications at the visible wavelength range involving plastic optical fiber systems.

在这项工作中，设计并制造了基于聚合物波导的光开关器件，该器件与基于有机增益材料的可见光放大波导集成在一起。增益化合物是红色发射低聚物，在有机聚合物基质中具有良好的分散性。分析了活性聚合物波导芯和覆层材料的光学特性和热稳定性。发现在650 nm红色信号波长，输入功率为0.1 mW的情况下，放大器的光增益仅在1.6 mW泵浦功率和532 nm绿色激发光下才超过3.5 dB。所测得的集成热电开关的通断响应时间为600μs，开关消光比为20 dB，电开关功率为18.5 mW。