Femtosecond laser embedded grating micromachining of flexible PDMS plates

Abstract

We report on the femtosecond laser micromachining of photo-induced embedded diffraction grating in flexible Poly (Dimethly Siloxane) (PDMS) plates using a high-intensity femtosecond (130 fs) Ti: sapphire laser ( λ p = 800 nm). The refractive index modifications with diameters ranging from 2 μm to 5 μm were photo-induced after the irradiation with peak intensities of more than 1 × 10 11 W/cm 2. The graded refractive index profile was fabricated to be a symmetric around from the center of the point at which femtosecond laser was focused. The maximum refractive index change (Δ n) was estimated to be 2 × 10 −3. By the X– Y– Z scanning of sample, the embedded diffraction grating in PDMS plate was fabricated successfully using a femtosecond laser.