Birefringence data on Ag(+)-Na(+) ion-exchanged planar waveguides are presented that are experimentally determined by a high-frequency polarimetric technique. The examined systems exhibit positive stress-induced birefringence across the whole exchanged regions, corresponding to compressive stress fields of the order of 10(2) MPa. Furthermore, refractive-index profiles have been compared with compositional secondary-ion-mass spectrometry in-depth profiles and show that, in the case of silver-sodium exchange, the stress contribution to the index change is negligible with respect to the compositional one.