We report on how the optical and structural properties of Nd:YAG proton beam written waveguides are modified when they experienced annealing treatments from 50 °C to 950 °C. The microstructural changes caused in the vicinity of the nuclear damage region were found to be stable up to 700 °C, so that higher annealing temperatures lead to a complete waveguide erasing. Before this "erasing" temperature, the partial thermal-induced defect recombination reduces the propagation losses, reaching its minimum value (below 1 dB/cm) after a 400 °C thermal annealing.
© 2011 Optical Society of America