Femtosecond direct laser writing of silk fibroin optical waveguides

Abstract

Silk fibroin is an abundant natural polymer, which in the last years has been proposed as an attractive material for high-technological applications, offering also new opportunities for photonics and optoelectronics. In this context, the design of optical waveguides based on silk fibroin is of great interest because of their ability to direct light in a controlled manner. In this work, we demonstrate the use of femtosecond direct laser writing (fs-DLW) to fabricate silk fibroin waveguides. Such waveguides were characterized by coupling 632.8 nm light from a He–Ne laser. Our findings demonstrate the potential of fs-DLW as a novel approach for the fabrication of silk fibroin waveguides, which provides a versatile platform for optical and biomedical applications.