Sputtered tellurite glass thin films for planar optical devices

Tellurium oxide is a promising optical material, conjugating transparency in the infrared with high refractive index, low chromatic dispersion with strong nonlinear response, elevated acousto-optic figure of merit and rare earth doping capability. Reactive sputtering is a suitable technique to obtain thin films of pure TeO2 glass, with tunable stoichiometry, without the need for added components to help vitrification. We report on the growth of tellurite thin films, on the linear and non-linear optical characterization and on the process technology to implement high-contrast planar optics.