Microwave Consolidation of UV Photosensitive Doped Silica for Integrated Photonics

Rapid thermal consolidation of doped silica soot in a silicon carbide lined kiln subjected to microwave radiation is reported. The silica soot is fabricated through flame hydrolysis deposition and peak temperatures within the kiln reach >1350 °C after 18 minutes of irradiation. The glass underwent Newtonian cooling with an e−1 of approximately 5 minutes. Optical characteristics of the planar glass layer are compared against traditional furnace consolidation approaches. Single-mode waveguides and Bragg gratings were direct UV written into the consolidated doped silica, and a propagation loss of 0.34 ± 0.15 dB cm−1 was measured.