Technological challenges in the development of silica-titania platform for integrated optics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.4302/plp.v15i3.1221Abstract
This short report discusses the technological challenges of silica-titania (SiO2:TiO2) thin film deposited via a simple, cost-effective sol-gel process and dip-coating method. Sol-gel is a versatile method for producing materials by using a solution (sol) that undergoes a gelation process to form a solid network (gel). This process involves hydrolysis and condensation reactions of precursor molecules. Although the sol-gel application is simple and economical, it has some limitations. The aging of sol-gel materials causes a change in the properties and structure of a sol-gel system over time, causing a deterioration in the final properties of the waveguide thin films. Nanoimprint lithography is a cost-effective patterning technique that is only effective when fresh sol is used; otherwise, it leads to the formation of defective waveguide structures.
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