Light-amplitude modulator

An investigation was made of the dispersion characteristics of mercury-coated planar waveguides. The use of a metal coating as a mode analyzer was more effective in the near infrared range. A liquid mercury coating differed from the usual evaporated metal film because of a considerable reduction in the rate of losses that would occur in the case of an abrupt boundary of a solid metal. The attenuation coefficients of the TE and TM modes were determined for diffused waveguides.