OPTICAL WAVEGUIDE FABRICATION AND REFRACTIVE INDEX CHARACTERIZATION OF Nd:LuVO4 THIN FILMS BY PULSED LASER DEPOSITION

High-quality Nd:LuVO4 thin films have been grown on silica glass substrates by using a pulsed laser deposition technique. X-ray diffraction results show that the as-deposited Nd:LuVO4 film is basically oriented polycrystalline, and strong (200) peak was revealed. The waveguide property was characterized by the prism-coupling method. The refractive index of the propagation mode is higher than that of the silica glass substrate which means that the dips correspond to real propagation mode, where the light could be well defined. The surface morphology of the deposited Nd:LuVO4 films was also observed by using an atomic force microscopy.