In this presentation, we review our recent work on exploring and developing new techniques for planar lightwave circuits utilizing silver-sodium ion exchange. In the experiments, two special kinds of glass substrates have been used: aluminoborosilicate glass (also called BGG31) specially developed for passive ion-exchanged waveguides and phosphate glass (commercial name IOG-1) designed for waveguide laser applications. Phosphate glass can be doped with large amounts of rare earth ions without significant lifetime reduction. This enables fabrication of short-cavity waveguide lasers, a desirable feature for example in high-repetition rate modelocked lasers operating at 1550 nm wavelength region.

First, birefringence properties of buried molten salt ion-exchanged waveguides in BGG31 glass are presented in detail. It will be shown that waveguides with zero birefringence can be obtained by properly adjusting the thermal annealing time. The effect of waveguide mask opening width on waveguide birefringence is described. Low birefringence, 10^-5 or below, is demonstrated for both the even and odd mode with wide range of mask opening widths. Results of birefringence properties of an optical add-drop multiplexers/demultiplexer (OADM) fabricated into BGG31 glass are presented.

Photosensitivity properties of both undoped and Er-Yb-codoped IOG-1 glass are discussed. A new approach to fabricate waveguide Bragg gratings through UV exposure in IOG-1 glass will be presented. High quality waveguide Bragg gratings with reflectivity of the order of 80% are demonstrated in undoped IOG-1 glass. A single mode waveguide laser utilizing this kind of a narrowband UV-written waveguide Bragg grating as one of the cavity mirrors is demonstrated in hybrid IOG-1 glass. Waveguide Bragg gratings with lower reflectivity (R~15%) in Er-Yb-codoped IOG-1 glass are also described. Results of the material study into the effect of UV light exposure on phosphate glass will also be presented.

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