Design, simulation and fabrication of a hollow core ARROW waveguide in glass substrate for optofluidic applications

Abstract

The antiresonant reflecting optical waveguide (ARROW) with hollow core and liquid core are one of the most promising technologies in Lab-on-a-Chips and optofluidic research. Motivated by this, in this paper we present the design, simulation and fabrication processes of hollow core ARROW built in Corning glass substrates and utilizing Si3N4/SiO2 PECVD antiresonant reflecting multilayer films on the channel wall. Details about the TMM/FDM methodology developed for the simple and fast design of ARROW waveguides built with multilayer dielectric thin films deposited over rounded microchannels in glass substrates are exhibited. The preliminary results confirm the light confinement in the hollow core region of the fabricated waveguide structure but further experiment are needed to fully characterize the devices.