Filamentation-free self-written waveguides in a photopolymerizable medium initiated by multimode optical fibers

Abstract

The inscription of light-induced self-written waveguides (LISW) with multimode optical fibers cannot be achieved by using coherent light because of the filamentation phenomena coming from the interferences among the different propagating modes. To suppress this filamentation, we have used two distinct strategies, an incoherent light writing technique and an "on the flow" writing process, to demonstrate the buildup of 1.5 mm long multimode LISWs.