Relief-type diffraction grating by amorphous chalcogenide films

Abstract

In As-Se- (S) -Ge amorphous films, a remarkable difference of chemical etching rate between the heat-treated state and the light-irradiated state has been observed. Utilizing this characteristic, a relief-type diffraction grating of the amorphous film was obtained (the pitch between grating lines, 0.86 μm). This grating has achieved a high diffraction efficiency of 15.8%, which was about 10 times greater than before chemical etching.

Chalcogenide glasses in Japan: A review on photoinduced phenomena

“…At present, it seems that basic mechanisms of these refractive‐index changes are common to those reported by Brandes et al (BTL) for hot‐pressed AsS glasses 53 and by Keneman (RCA) for as‐evaporated As 2 S 3 films 54. Although the first reports on irreversible and reversible refractive‐index changes were published by these US scientists, the NTT group demonstrated the importance of Ge for the magnitude and reversibility of the refractive‐index change through employing evaporated 51 and sputtered 55, 56 films with a composition such as Ge 1 As 4 Se 5 . The group, later headed by Mizushima, has reported excellent works in both application 57–67 and fundamental 68–72 fields.…”

Chalcogenide glassy photoresists: History of development, properties, and applications

“…Most investigators studied and applied ChGP based on the arsenic chalcogenides, while the Japanese researchers worked with the germanium chalcogenide-based ChGP [18,19]. Also of importance was the choice of selective solvents, which interact differently with irradiated and non-irradiated areas.…”

“…Later, the possibility of creating inorganic photoresists attracted attention of many researchers [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Most investigators studied and applied ChGP based on the arsenic chalcogenides, while the Japanese researchers worked with the germanium chalcogenide-based ChGP [18,19].…”

Direct laser writing of relief diffraction gratings into a bulk chalcogenide glass

“…Therefore, micropatterning and nanopatterning of chalcogenide glass or thin-film optical devices play an important role for further enhancement of functionalities and applications. Micropatterning of chalcogenide glasses can be realized by a variety of techniques, such as traditional mask-based, multiphoton or direct UV lithography [6][7][8], holography [9,10], nanoimprint lithography employing hard or soft stamps [11][12][13], ink-printing [14], or direct laser writing (DLW) [15][16][17][18]. DLW has been already demonstrated as an effective method for fabrication of chalcogenide-based threedimensional (3D) photonic crystals [16], and optical waveguides in thin films [17], under surface "buried" multimode waveguides [18] or low-loss 3D mid-IR optical waveguides [19] in Ga-La-S glasses.…”