Abstract
Novel materials have been developed to meet the increasing mechanical, electrical and optical properties required for technological applications in different fields of sciences. Among the methods available for modifying and improving materials properties, femtosecond laser processing is a potential approach. Owing to its precise ablation and modification capability, femtosecond laser processing has already been employed in a broad range of materials, including glasses and polymers. When ultrashort laser pulses are focused into a transparent material, the intensity at the focus can become high enough to induce nonlinear optical processes. Here, we report on femtosecond (fs) laser microfabrication in special glasses and polymers. Initially, we describe fs-laser micromachining on the surface of copper doped borate and borosilicate glasses. Subsequently, we present results on two-photon induced polymerization to fabricate microstructures containing fluorescent dyes for manufacturing optical microcavities. Both approaches are promising for designing optical and photonics micro/nanodevices.
Highlights
In the last decades, laser has become an important tool for material processing at the industry, being mainly used for welding, cutting and drilling
The 0.1CuO doped borate (53B2O3-14MgO-13ZnO6.5SiO2-4PbO-1.5Al2O3-0.5Nb2O5-2.5Na2O-4.5K2O0.5Sb2O3) and borosilicate (50SiO2-17B2O3-11.5MgO10Na2O-11.5Al2O3 mol%) glasses were prepared by conventional melting-quenching technique, using platinum crucible and melting temperature above 1200 °C
Our results indicate that the fluorescent dye was not degraded during the microfabrication process, and that it is retained in the microstructures after the washing process
Summary
Laser has become an important tool for material processing at the industry, being mainly used for welding, cutting and drilling. The need for producing more compact equipment has motivated researchers to develop new techniques for material processing at micro/nano scale[1,2,3,4]. In femtosecond laser micromachining, a focused fs-laser beam is used to induce permanent changes on the surface or in the bulk of materials to produce 3D microstructures. By moving the sample with respect to the laser focus, it is possible to change the material properties, such as the refractive index, nonlinear optical susceptibility, crystalline structure and morphology, with high spatial precision[5,6]. From semiconductors to organic compounds have been investigated in order to develop all-optical devices. In this paper we show some recent results we obtained on the use of fs-laser to micromachine doped glasses and to microfabricate 3D polymeric structures, which are potential materials for photonics applications
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