Construction of conducting and photoconducting 3D structures with submicron resolution in electrooptical substrates

It is shown that the implantation of protons in electrooptical substrates enables the construction of 3D structures with submicron features that are both conductive and photoconductive embedded in amorphized regions that possess reduced refractive index. The conductivity and photoconductivity are attributed to the transformation of the material into a degenerate semiconductor due to the formation of high concentration of OH- complexes that are created by the bonding of the implanted H+ ions to the O-2 ions of the lattice. It is argued that these results extend significantly the capabilities of integrated photonic circuits and devices fabricated by Refractive Index Engineering by ion implantations. (orig.)