Effect of Annealing Process for Copper Ion-Exchanged Planar Waveguides in BK7 Glass

Planar BK7 glass waveguides were prepared by thermal ion-exchanged technique for 15–30 minutes at temperature of 585°C. Then the prepared waveguides were annealed in the air for 60 minutes at 400-600°C. It shows that the annealing process strongly influences the refractive index profiles and photoluminescence properties of the waveguides.