Extraordinary laser-induced swelling of oxide glasses

We describe a novel process of laser-assisted fabrication of surface structures on doped oxide glasses with heights reaching 10-13% of the glass thickness. This effect manifests itself as a swelling of the irradiated portion of the glass, which occurs in a wide range of glass compositions. The extent of such swelling depends on the glass base composition. Doping with Fe, Ti, Co, Ce, and other transition metals allows for adjusting the absorption of the glass and maximizing the feature size. In the case of bumps grown on borosilicate glasses, we observe reversible glass swelling and the bump height can increase or decrease depending on whether the consecutive laser pulse has higher or lower energy compared with the previous one. The hypothetical mechanism includes laser heating of glass, glass melting, and directional flow. We review several potential applications of such glass swelling. (C) 2009 Optical Society of America