Various ion-induced phenomena appearing in dielectric materials and their applications to optical devices and biosensors

Various interesting phenomena are induced in dielectric materials by swift-ion irradiation. This paper reports effects of swift-light- and swift-heavy-ion irradiation on SiO
₂
glass, rutile TiO
₂
monocrystal, and fluorinated polyimide, which are typical dielectric materials. We also demonstrate that ion-induced phenomena can be applied to fabrication of advanced waveguide-type optical devices such as a planar-lightwave-circuit-type directional coupler and a highly sensitive waveguide-mode biosensor.