We provide a solution toward compact and low-loss three dimensional (3D) photonic circuits by femtosecond laser direct writing of 3D waveguides in fused silica. We suppress the bend loss by sandwiching the waveguide between a pair of walls formed by internal modification of glass. Our method allows to reduce the bend loss of a curved waveguide with a bending radius of 15 mm by more than one order of magnitude.
This work represents a particular application of waveguide fabricated by femtosecond laser micromachining technology. More specifically, we report the development of an optical modulator based on the fabrication of single-mode optical waveguide structures buried in X-cut lithium niobate crystal with the femtosecond laser direct writing method. Here, change in refractive index profile is measured using near field intensity profile measurement method at optimized writing conditions. It has been observed that the change refractive index (Δn) is in the range of 10-4. Finally, the behavior of femto…
We present a rotated polarization directional coupler (RPDC) on a photonic chip. We demonstrate a double-track approach to modify the distribution of refractive index between adjacent tracks and form a single waveguide with arbitrary birefringent optical axis. We construct a RPDC with the two axis-rotated waveguides coupled in a strong regime. The obtained extinction ratios on average are about 16dB and 20dB for the corresponding orthogonal polarizations. We perform the reconstruction of Stokes vector to test the projection performance of our RPDC, and observe the average fidelities up to 98.1…
Femtosecond laser writing is a powerful technique that allows rapid and cost-effective fabrication of photonic integrated circuits with unique three-dimensional geometries. In particular, the possibility to reconfigure such devices by thermo-optic phase shifters represents a paramount feature, exploited to produce adaptive and programmable circuits. However, the scalability is strongly limited by the flaws of current thermal phase shifters, which require hundreds of milliwatts to operate and exhibit large thermal crosstalk. In this work, thermally-insulating three-dimensional microstructures a…
Exposure of metal surfaces to multiple ultrashort laser pulses under certain conditions leads to the formation of well-defined periodic surface structures. We show how the period of such structures in steel can be tuned over a wide range by controlling the complex interaction mechanisms triggered in the material. Amongst the different irradiation parameters that influence the properties of the induced structures, the angle of incidence of the laser beam occupies a prominent role. We present an experimental and theoretical investigation of this angle dependence in steel upon irradiation with la…
Tailoring the birefringence of femtosecond-laser-written multi-scan waveguides in glass
Istituto di Fotonica e Nanotecnologie - Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche（意大利国家研究委员会光子学与纳米技术研究所）；Dipartimento di Fisica - Politecnico di Milano（米兰理工大学物理系）
Nonlinear absorption of femtosecond laser pulses provides a unique opportunity to confine energy deposition in any medium to a region that is below the focal diameter of a pulse. Illumination of a polymer film through a transparent high bandgap material such as glass, followed by nonlinear absorption of 800 nm light in polymers, allows us to further restrict absorption to a very thin layer along the propagation direction. We demonstrate this confinement by simulating femtosecond-laser-induced polymer modification by linear, two-photon and three-photon absorption, and discuss the control over e…
We propose a feedback-assisted direct laser writing method to perform laser ablation of fiber optics devices in which their light-collection signal is used to optimize their properties. A femtosecond-pulsed laser beam is used to ablate a metal coating deposited around a tapered optical fiber, employed to show the suitability of the approach to pattern devices with small radius of curvature. During processing, the same pulses generate two-photon fluorescence in the surrounding environment and the signal is monitored to identify different patterning regimes over time through spectral analysis. T…
Laser direct writing is an attractive method for patterning 2D materials without contamination. Literature shows that the femtosecond ablation threshold of graphene across substrates varies by an order of magnitude. Some attribute it to the thermal coupling to the substrates, but it remains by and large an open question. For the first time the effect of substrates on femtosecond ablation of 2D materials is studied using MoS$_{2}$ as an example. We show unambiguously that femtosecond ablation of MoS$_{2}$ is an adiabatic process with negligible heat transfer to the substrates. The observed thre…
Diamond has attracted great interest as a quantum technology platform thanks to its optically active nitrogen vacancy center (NV). The NV's ground state spin can be read out optically exhibiting long spin coherence times of about 1 ms even at ambient temperatures. In addition, the energy levels of the NV are sensitive to external fields. These properties make NVs attractive as a scalable platform for efficient nanoscale resolution sensing based on electron spins and for quantum information systems. Diamond photonics enhances optical interaction with NVs, beneficial for both quantum sensing and…
Nanostructuring hard optical crystals has so far been exclusively feasible at their surface, as stress induced crack formation and propagation has rendered high precision volume processes ineffective. We show that the inner chemical etching reactivity of a crystal can be enhanced at the nanoscale by more than five orders of magnitude by means of direct laser writing. The process allows to produce cm-scale arbitrary three-dimensional nanostructures with 100 nm feature sizes inside large crystals in absence of brittle fracture. To showcase the unique potential of the technique, we fabricate phot…
We demonstrated fabrication of waveguide and directional coupler in bulk glass-ceramics Zerodur, through femtosecond laser direct-writing. Waveguide propagation loss of no more than 1.5 dB/cm was achieved. We expect this will lead to the deployment of Zerodur integrated photonics in fields like space-borne astronomy, quantum technology and fundamental physics, for both economic and technical benefits.
We present here the inscription of single-mode waveguides with Bragg gratings in sapphire. The waveguide Bragg gratings have a novel multi-layer depressed cladding design in the 1550 nm telecommunications waveband. The Bragg gratings have a narrow bandwidth (<0.5 nm) and have survived annealing at 1000°C. The structures are inscribed with femtosecond laser direct writing, using adaptive beam shaping with a non-immersion objective. A single-mode sapphire fiber Bragg grating is created by writing a waveguide with a Bragg grating within a 425 μm diameter sapphire optical fiber, providing signific…
We present a new approach to femtosecond direct laser writing lithography to pattern nanocavities in ferromagnetic thin films. To demonstrate the concept we irradiated 300~nm thin nickel films by single intense femtosecond laser pulses through the glass substrate and created complex surface landscapes at the nickel-air interface. Using a fluence above the ablation threshold the process is destructive and irradiation leads to the formation of 200~nm thin flakes of nickel around the ablation crater as seen by electron microscopy. By progressively lowering the peak laser fluence, slightly below t…
3D printing allows rapid fabrication of complex objects from digital designs. One 3D-printing process, direct laser writing, polymerises a light-sensitive material by steering a focused laser beam through the shape of the object to be created. The highest-resolution direct laser writing systems use a femtosecond laser to effect two-photon polymerisation. The focal (polymerisation) point is steered over the shape of the desired object with mechanised stages or galvanometer-controlled mirrors. Here we report a new high-resolution direct laser writing system that employs a resonant mirror scanner…
Dense and efficient circuits with component sizes approaching the physical limit is the hallmark of high performance integration. However, current fabrication technology is mostly constraint to 2D lithography, and thermal energy dissipation induced by switching electronic signal lines presents a fundamental challenge for truly 3D electronic integration. Photonics reduces this problem, and direct laser writing of a photoresin is a promising high-resolution tool for 3D photonic integration. Here, we combine one and two-photon polymerization (TPP) for waveguide integration for the first time, dra…
Cavity optomechanics, the study of the interplay between light and mechanical properties of matter, has triggered a wide range of groundbreaking researches from cavity quantum electrodynamics, label free single molecule detection to the creation of phonon laser. Using femtosecond laser direct writing followed by chemo-mechanical polishing, here we report an ultrahigh quality (Q~10^7) factor lithium niobate (LN) whispering gallery microresonator monolithically integrated with in-plane microelectrodes. Coherent regenerative optomechanical oscillation with an effective mechanical quality (Qm) fac…
We develop a technique for realizing lithium niobate on insulator (LNOI) waveguides of a multi-centimeter-length with a propagation loss as low as 0.027 dB/cm. Our technique relies on patterning a chromium (Cr) thin film coated on the top surface of LNOI into a hard mask with a femtosecond laser followed by the chemo-mechanical polishing for structuring the LNOI into the waveguides. The surface roughness on the waveguides is determined to be 0.452 nm with an atomic force microscope (AFM). The approach is compatible with other surface patterning technologies such as optical and electron beam li…
In-volume ultrafast laser direct writing of silicon is generally limited by strong nonlinear propagation effects preventing the initiation of modifications. By employing a triple-optimization procedure in the spectral, temporal and spatial domains, we demonstrate that modifications can be repeatably produced inside silicon. Our approach relies on irradiation at $\approx 2$-$μ$m wavelength with temporally-distorted femtosecond pulses. These pulses are focused in a way that spherical aberrations of different origins counterbalance, as predicted by point spread function analyses and in good agree…
All-optical switching (AOS) of magnetic materials describes the reversal of the magnetization using short (femtosecond) laser pulses, and has been observed in a variety of materials. In the past decade it received extensive attention due to its high potential for fast and energy-efficient data writing in future spintronic memory applications. Unfortunately, the AOS mechanism in the ferromagnetic multilayers commonly used in spintronics needs multiple pulses for the magnetization reversal, losing its speed and energy efficiency. Here, we experimentally demonstrate `on-the-fly' single-pulse AOS …
Photonics integrated circuitry would benefit considerably from the ability to arbitrarily control waveguide cross-sections with high precision and low loss, in order to provide more degrees of freedom in manipulating propagating light. Here, we report a new method for femtosecond laser writing of optical-fibre-compatible glass waveguides, namely spherical phase induced multi-core waveguide (SPIM-WG), which addresses this challenging task with three dimensional on-chip light control. Fabricating in the heating regime with high scanning speed, precise deformation of cross-sections is still achie…
