213 nm laser written waveguides in Ge-doped planar silica without hydrogen loading

In this paper we present the first example of waveguides fabricated by UV writing in non-hydrogen loaded Ge-doped planar silica with 213 nm light. Single mode waveguides were fabricated and the numerical apertures and mode field diameters were measured for a range of writing fluences. A peak index change of 5.3 x 10(-3) was inferred for the waveguide written with 70 kJ cm(-2). The refractive index change is sufficient to match the index structure of standard optical fiber. Uniformity of the written structures was measured and a propagation loss of 0.39 +/- 0.03 dB cm(-1) was determined through cutback measurements. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.