Optical Fabrication of Three-Dimensional Waveguide Structures in Photorefractive Material. Photo-Induced Refractive Index Changes in Glasses with Ultra-Short Pulse Laser.

Abstract

In an attempt to write optical waveguides in bulk glasses, photo-induced refractive index changes were continuously created by focusing an ultra-short pulse laser through a microscope objective and translating the sample parallel or perpendicular to the axis of the laser beam. The resulting linear refractive index changes were written inside the bulk glasses along the path traversed by the focal point of the laser. From field intensity distributions in the output of guided light for these waveguides, we demonstrated that permanent optical waveguides could be successfully formed in various types of glass.