Fabricating low loss waveguides over a large depth in glass by temperature gradient assisted femtosecond laser writing

Tan, Dezhi; Sun, Xiaoyu; Wang, Qian; Zhou, Peng; Liu, Yongping; Qiu, Jianrong

doi:10.1364/ol.396861

Cited by 40 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Typically, in UFL micromachining with thermal accumulation effect, obvious melt zones with sizes much larger than the spot size (e.g., >10 μm) and two boundaries can be generated, which is not consistent with our observations (Figure 1a). [ 19,28,37 ] The absence of thermal accumulation may be favorable for the formation of stable clusters in the focal volume. [ 27,37 ] Furthermore, the above discussions regarding the optical properties of Ag clusters indicate that the aggregation of Ag 0 occurs simultaneously without thermal activating assistance and is different from the previously proposed thermal activating clustering and aggregation processes.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single‐Pulse‐Induced Ultrafast Spatial Clustering of Metal in Glass: Fine Tunability and Application

Tan

Jiang

et al. 2021

Advanced Photonics Research

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Directly controlling the clustering process in transparent solids is an effective way to tune the properties of clusters and is important for integrated devices. Herein, single‐pulse ultrafast laser (UFL) micromachining is conducted as a facile technique to engineer the ultrafast clustering of metal in glass. Stable Ag clusters with few atoms are generated without thermal activation and exhibit efficient emission. Consequently, the clustering efficiency is enhanced by more than a thousand times compared with that of previous studies. The photoluminescence (PL) intensity and diameter of the emissive dots are precisely tailored by adjusting the number of pulses, pulse energy, and Ag doping concentration. It is confirmed that single‐pulse UFL micromachining is significantly superior in creating submicrometer luminescent structures compared with multipulse writing. High‐capacity optical information storage with a high signal‐to‐noise ratio is demonstrated by directly writing Ag clusters in 3D. Single‐pulse UFL micromachining enables precise fine tuning of the local chemistry of transparent solids and opens perspectives for the construction of functional micro/nanostructures and devices in 3D with a high throughput.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Single‐Pulse‐Induced Ultrafast Spatial Clustering of Metal in Glass: Fine Tunability and Application

Tan

Jiang

et al. 2021

Advanced Photonics Research

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“…6(a)-6(c)]. 67 Furthermore, a mechanism of a temperature gradient-assisted process was proposed for the formation of WGs, which locates outside the focus. Consequently, the unique position of WGs allows for abating the distortion of laser energy in the focal volume and inscribing low-loss deep WGs.…”

Section: Multiscanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our work indicates that monitoring the WG size offers an effective way to optimize the multiscan process efficiently. 67 Furthermore, the optimal processing window for low-loss WGs is usually small, and the fluctuation in the writing process may be detrimental to the reproducibility and the uniformity, especially when the number of the WGs is larger. Multiscan as well as the aforementioned SLM-assisted parallel writing should be helpful for improving the writing reproducibility and the uniformity.…”

Section: Multiscanmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[95][96][97][98] In the fs laser writing process, the local temperature would be higher than that of the softening and working point of glass. 67,98 As a result, the breaking of bonds linking the network modifiers or the network formers will occur in this high-temperature field, and the ions, including O 2− , would diffuse and modify the local compositions of glass, which usually leads to formation of two typical zones with positive and negative refractive index change, respectively. Increasing the concentration of the components such as Ca, La, and Al that induce densification and disorder causes a larger increase in refractive index, with Δn reaching 10 −2 , and reduces the coupling loss and propagation loss significantly.…”

Section: Composition Engineeringmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…For example, temperature gradient-assisted fs laser writing offers a promising technique to tune the size of WGs and reduce the coupling loss significantly. 67 Packaging techniques for integrating various optical components and a large number of WGs are in demand. 169 In addition, WGs also provide a new platform for applications not yet achieved.…”

Section: Conclusion and Prospectsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Photonic circuits written by femtosecond laser in glass: improved fabrication and recent progress in photonic devices

et al. 2021

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Integrated photonics is attracting considerable attention and has found many applications in both classical and quantum optics, fulfilling the requirements for the ever-growing complexity in modern optical experiments and big data communication. Femtosecond (fs) laser direct writing (FLDW) is an acknowledged technique for producing waveguides (WGs) in transparent glass that have been used to construct complex integrated photonic devices. FLDW possesses unique features, such as three-dimensional fabrication geometry, rapid prototyping, and single step fabrication, which are important for integrated communication devices and quantum photonic and astrophotonic technologies. To fully take advantage of FLDW, considerable efforts have been made to produce WGs over a large depth with low propagation loss, coupling loss, bend loss, and highly symmetrical mode field. We summarize the improved techniques as well as the mechanisms for writing high-performance WGs with controllable morphology of cross-section, highly symmetrical mode field, low loss, and high processing uniformity and efficiency, and discuss the recent progress of WGs in photonic integrated devices for communication, topological physics, quantum information processing, and astrophotonics. Prospective challenges and future research directions in this field are also pointed out.

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Ultrafast Laser Inducing Continuous Periodic Crystallization in the Glass Activated via Laser‐Prepared Crystallite‐Seeds

Zhang

Wang

Tan

et al. 2021

Advanced Optical Materials

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In particular, ultrafast laser direct writing based glasscrystal optics has been widely reported to realize 3D nonlinear photonic crystals, [6,7] second harmonic generation, [8,9] optical waveguides, [10,11] and perovskite quantum dots in the glass. [12,13] However, the reported ultrafast laser-patterned microstructures mainly rely on direct laser energy deposition, and the processing precision and efficiency are very limited. Recently, functional crystal arrays (CAs) with periodically varied optical properties and nanoscale feature sizes have been demonstrated to possess promising applicable prospects in frontier studies, [14,15] but remain very difficult to be obtained with conventional technologies. Therefore, novel approaches for realizing highresolution periodic nanopatterning in transparent dielectrics are highly desirable to solve these problems. Extensive studies have demonstrated that periodic field distribution (PFD) generated by ultrafast laser-matter interaction process can periodically modify transparent media at the nanometer-scale level and generate polarization-dependent grating structures with a periodic change in component, accompanied with strong polarization-dependent birefringence. [16][17][18] Such modification breaks the diffraction limit and is applicable to several transparent dielectrics like silica glass, borosilicate glass, and GeO 2 glass, [19][20][21] which provides a highly promising approach to create CAs. However, despite nearly 20 years of study and a large number of published works, only a very limited number of materials are able to support the formation of CAs and the reason remains a mystery. [22][23][24] The mechanism bridging PFD and CAs remains largely unclarified. From these studies, we note two key points. First, the formation capability of crystalline grating structures strongly depends on the thermal effect and the glass composition, which is in line with the capability of phase transition from glass to ceramic. Second, the crystal nucleus is generally a critical starting unit for crystal formation and growth.Here, we present an ultrafast laser-induced CPC process in the La 2 O 3 -Nb 2 O 5 glass (LN glass) that allows creating periodic structures made of self-assembled CAs. We reveal that this CPC process is catalyzed by the local defective crystalliteseeds that can offer a unique auxiliary effect to activate and Tailoring ultrafast light-matter interaction as an enabler to create functional periodic crystalline patterns inside transparent dielectrics is of great scientific and technological significance but remains a tremendous challenge because of plenty of unclarified process details and physical mechanisms. Here, a dynamic process of ultrafast laser-induced continuous periodic crystallization (CPC) to generate self-organized crystal arrays (CAs) inside the glass is reported. The crystallite-seeds induced by ultrafast laser are revealed to offer an auxiliary effect that can initiate and maintain the CPC process, which promises the high-efficiency writing of CAs. The...

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Fabricating low loss waveguides over a large depth in glass by temperature gradient assisted femtosecond laser writing

Cited by 40 publications

References 38 publications

Single‐Pulse‐Induced Ultrafast Spatial Clustering of Metal in Glass: Fine Tunability and Application

Single‐Pulse‐Induced Ultrafast Spatial Clustering of Metal in Glass: Fine Tunability and Application

Photonic circuits written by femtosecond laser in glass: improved fabrication and recent progress in photonic devices

Ultrafast Laser Inducing Continuous Periodic Crystallization in the Glass Activated via Laser‐Prepared Crystallite‐Seeds

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