Abstract: A photo-patternable perfluorinated silane sol-gel material is presented that exhibits a high refractive index and propagation losses below 1 dB/cm at the telecommunication wavelengths. The sol-gels are produced with general formula [(CH2)n, R′—Si(O)2]x—[Si(O)4]y—[R′—Si(O)3]z—[R″(CH2)n-M(O)3]w—[R′″(CH2)n—Si(O)3]v where O is oxygen, Si is silicon, M is a metal alkoxyde known to form bonds with organic compounds through oxygen donor ligands, and where , R″ and R′″ are photo cross-linkable groups, and where (CH2)n are alkyl spacers with n being an integer ≧0. The sol-gels can be fabricated to produce complex waveguide structures directly onto silica-on-silicon substrates with low bending losses.