Optical properties of a single mode planar waveguide in Nd:YVO4 fabricated by multienergy He ion implantation.

We fabricated a single-mode planar waveguide in z-cut Nd:YVO4 by multienergy He ion implantation in total fluence of 4.5 x 10(16) ions/cm(2) at room temperature and investigated optical properties of Nd:YVO4 before and after He ion implantation by measuring transmission, confocal microluminescence, and confocal Raman spectra. Absorption bands and the photoluminescence features of the bulk Nd:YVO4 crystal have been preserved after He ion implantation. In Raman spectra, most of the peak positions and peak widths had no obvious change before and after He ion implantation. The guiding mode and near-field image in the waveguide were measured by the prism coupling method and end-face coupling method, respectively. We investigated the damage behavior of a Nd:YVO4 waveguide after implantation, annealing treatment by the Rutherford backscattering/channeling technique. The minimum yield of the virgin z-cut Nd:YVO4 was 1.98%, which increased to 4.73% after He ion implantation and decreased to 3.20% after annealing at 600 K for 30 minutes. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America