Femtosecond laser-induced microfeatures in glasses and their applications

Abstract: In the past decades, femtosecond laser has been widely used to study the interaction between light and matter, and dynamic processes of various reactions. In this article, we review femtosecond laser-induced microfeatures in glasses and their promising applications in micro-optics and optoelectronics. Various highly localized microstructures, e.g. color center defects, refractive index change, micro-void and micro-crack, have been observed in the glasses after the femtosecond laser irradiation. The mechanisms of the observed phenomena are discussed. We also demonstrate the fabrication of various micro-optical components, e.g. three-dimensional optical memory, optical waveguide, micro-grating, micro-lens and fiber attenuator, by using the femtosecond laser-induced structures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]