Self-Written Waveguides as Low-Loss Interconnects and Temperature Sensor

Optical interconnects have become an active research topic in photonics during the last decades. Self-written waveguides (SWW) are an established technology to connect optical components such as fibers, waveguides, light sources and detectors. These structures are formed in a liquid monomer by photo-polymerization which leads to a self-trapping of the light due to the local increase of the refractive index.