Methods of forming ion-exchanged waveguides in glass substrates are disclosed. In one embodiment, a method of forming a waveguide in an ion-exchanged glass substrate having an ion-exchanged layer extending from a surface to a depth of layer of the ion-exchanged glass substrate includes locally heating at least one band at the surface of the ion-exchanged glass substrate to diffuse ions in the ion-exchanged layer within the at least one band. A concentration of ions within the at least one band is less than a concentration of ions outside of the at least one band, and at least one waveguide is defined within the ion-exchanged layer adjacent the at least one band. In some embodiments, the at least one waveguide is embedded within the ion-exchanged glass substrate such that an upper surface of the at least one waveguide is below the surface of the glass substrate by a depth d.

An optical coupler (1) for coupling light in/out of an optical receiving/emitting structure comprises an optical fiber (100), a supporting device (200) to support the optical fiber (100) comprising a supporting structure (210) in which the optical fiber is arranged, and a covering device (300) to cover the supporting structure. An end face (E100a) of the optical fiber (100) is configured to reflect the light to one of the supporting device (200) and the covering device (300) comprising a first area and a second area (210, 220, 310, 320) being provided with a respective different index of refraction or a change of the respective index of refraction so that the first area (310) is configured as one of an optical waveguide (311) and at least one optical lens (312) being embedded in the second area and forming an optical pathway in said one of the supporting device and the covering device.

Prism-coupling systems and methods for characterizing large depth-of-layer waveguides formed in glass substrates are disclosed. One method includes making a first measurement after a first ion-exchange process that forms a deep region and then performing a second measurement after a second ion-exchange process that forms a shallow region. Light-blocking features are arranged relative to the prism to produce a mode spectrum where the contrast of the mode lines for the strongly coupled low-order modes is improved at the expense of loss of resolution for measuring characteristics of the shallow region. Standard techniques for determining the compressive stress, the depth of layer or the tensile strength of the shallow region are then employed. A second measurement can be made using a near-IR wavelength to measure characteristics of the deeper, first ion-exchange process. Systems and methods of measuring ion-exchanged samples using shape control are also disclosed.

A glass substrate includes: a core portion to be an optical waveguide; and a cladding portion. The core portion and the cladding portion both include a glass, the core portion has a higher Ag concentration than the cladding portion, a Ag concentration gradient is present from a boundary between the core portion and the cladding portion toward a region in the core portion where the Ag concentration is maximum, the core portion is a region where a refractive index is equal to or greater than a value represented by {N+(n/2)}, where n is a refractive index difference represented by (NmaxN), the refractive index difference n is 0.005 or more, and a core thickness d of the core portion in a thickness direction of the glass substrate is 2.5 m to 10 m.