Abstract
The optical- functional properties of an integrated-optical strip-waveguide in a planar polymer chip are presented in this article. The waveguide was directly written into the surface of a planar polymer chip by UV-laser irradiation. Digital holographic interferometric phase shifting method is used to calculate the refractive index profile of the waveguide. This profile contains one or two zones according to the parameters of UV-laser. The mode field distribution and the effective mode indices for each zone are obtained. The study shows that the optical-functional properties strongly depend on the UV-irradiation parameters. Several mostly independently occurring photochemical processes competing with one another are proposed to explain the formation and shape of the refractive index distribution.