Under the Small Business Innovative Research program (Phase I) a new type of polymer construction of high quality planar and channel wave guides has been developed and demonstrated. The waveguides make use of the fact that the refractive index profile of the polymer film can be tuned by means of polarization density change induced during wet and dry processing. Phase II research will be addressed to establishing the technical foundation for Phase III development of the device: characterization of the polymer formation; refinement of the tuning process; refinement of film preparation to demonstrate optimum low resistivity, proper dielectric property, and high transparency; evaluation of switching speed; environmental tests; optical fiber interfacing; and preparation of a prototype.
