Femtosecond laser-induced microfeatures in glasses and their applications

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. (c) 2007 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.