Abstract

Here in we present the fabrication and performance of waveguide tapers produced by femtosecond laser induced element redistribution in modified phosphate glasses. More particularly, it is demonstrated that by controlling the scan velocity during the writing process it is possible to adequately tune both the size of the modified area and the refractive index contrast to produce waveguides that can cope with mode field diameters in the range of 7–16 μm. In addition, we fabricated tapered structures through the induction of an acceleration in the laser scanning velocity, resulting in a device that can efficiently convert a wide range of mode fields. The fine control achieved over the index contrast in the range of 10⁻³ and 10⁻² would allow the production of a wide variety of tapers that could potentially be used to couple numerous photonic devices.

Redistribution of elements in glass induced by a high-repetition-rate femtosecond laser

Fangfang Luo, Bin Qian, Geng Lin, Jian Xu, Yang Liao, Juan Song, Haiyi Sun, Bin Zhu, Jianrong Qiu, Quanzhong Zhao, and Zhizhan Xu
Opt. Express 18(6) 6262-6269 (2010)

Tapering of femtosecond laser-written waveguides

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Waveguide fabrication in lithium-niobo-phosphate glasses by high repetition rate femtosecond laser: route to non-equilibrium material’s states

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Waveguides fabricated by femtosecond laser exploiting both depressed cladding and stress-induced guiding core

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Low-loss channel optical waveguide fabrication in Nd³⁺-doped silicate glasses by femtosecond laser direct writing

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