Low-mass ion irradiation of glass waveguides for Cu quantum-dots formation

Low-mass ion irradiation of copper-doped glass waveguides prepared by ion-exchange is proposed as a suitable method for obtaining high-concentration colloidal composites. They exhibit high optical third-order nonlinearity, with applications in all-optical switching device technology. The set of effective indices of the waveguides are determined by m-line spectroscopy. The optical absorption features of the copper-doped glasses are investigated before and after ion irradiation, related to the presence of different copper oxidation states, The formation and the size distribution of clusters is investigated by transmission electron microscopy. The intensity-dependent refractive index of the colloidal composites is measured by means of the Z-scan technique.