Microring resonators fabricated by electron beam bleaching of chromophore doped polymers

Decomposition of chromophore molecules under direct electron beam irradiation reduces the refractive index of chromophore containing polymers. The induced refractive index contrast between the exposed and unexposed regions is high enough for waveguide bends of small radius and thus microring resonator devices. This electron beam bleaching of chromophore-containing polymers provides a fabrication approach for nonlinear polymer optical waveguide devices. Fabrication of high quality microring resonators with critical feature size on the order of 100 nm was demonstrated with this technique in an electro-optic polymer that contains YL124 chromophores.