Light trimming of a narrow bandpass filter based on a photosensitive chalcogenide spacer

We present an experimental study of the photosensitive properties of a narrow bandpass filter based on a Ge(15)Sb(20)S(65) spacer fabricated by electron beam deposition. For a single layer, near the optical bandgap of this chalcogenide material, the efficiency of the photo-bleaching increases as the central wavelength of the light source for exposure decreases. The maximum relative photo-induced change of the optical thickness reaches about 1%. By using controlled light exposure around 480 nm of a photosensitive narrow bandpass filter centered at 1550 nm, we obtained a spatially localized shift of its peak wavelength up to 5.4 nm. This property is used to perform, for the first time at our knowledge, the post trimming of a narrow bandpass filter with a light beam. A 5 x 5 mm(2) ultra uniform area in which the relative spatial variation of its peak wavelength remains below 0.004% is demonstrated.