High Refractive Index Chalcogenide Hybrid Inorganic/Organic Polymers for Integrated Photonics

Optical polymer‐based integrated photonic devices are gaining interest for applications in optical packaging, biosensing, and augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR). The low refractive index of conventional organic polymers has been a barrier to realizing dense, low footprint photonic devices. The fabrication and characterization of integrated photonic devices using a new class of high refractive index polymers, chalcogenide hybrid inorganic/organic polymers (CHIPs), which possess high refractive indices and lower optical losses compared to traditional hydrocarbon‐based polymers, are reported. These optical polymers are derived from elemental sulfur via the inverse vulcanization process, which allows for inexpensive monomers to be used for these materials. A facile fabrication strategy using CHIPs via lithography is described for single‐mode optical waveguides, Y junction splitters, multimode interferometers (MMIs), and high Q factor ring resonators, along with device characterization. Furthermore, propagation losses of 0.4 dB cm−1 near 1550 nm wavelength, which is the lowest measured loss in non‐fluorinated optical polymer waveguides, coupled with the benefits of low cost materials and manufacturing are reported. Ring resonators with Q factor on the order of 6 × 104 and cavity finesse of 45, which are some of the highest values reported for optical polymer‐based ring resonators, are also reported. The fabrication of photonic devices from high refractive index polymers remains an important emerging area for the creation of next‐generation low cost devices. The authors report on the first fabrication of polymer waveguides, Y junction splitters, and ring resonators using a new class of high refractive index polymers, chalcogenide hybrid inorganic/organic polymers.