Standing electron plasma wave mechanism of void array formation inside glass by femtosecond laser irradiation

We investigate the mechanism of formation of periodic void arrays inside fused silica and BK7 glass irradiated by a tightly focused femtosecond (fs) laser beam. Our results show that the period of each void array is not uniform along the laser propagation direction, and the average period of the void array decreases with increasing pulse number and pulse energy. We propose a mechanism in which a standing electron plasma wave created by the interference of a fs-laser-driven electron wave and its reflected wave is responsible for the formation of the periodic void arrays. PACS 61.80.Ba; 42.65.Re; 42.70.Ce; 61.72.Qq; 52.35.Mw     

高功率激光光束经颗粒污染后的近场衍射效应

采用高功率激光驱动器设计软件Laser designer数值研究了激光光束经颗粒污染后的近场衍射特性. 对颗粒污染所产生的调制进行了分类, 并详细分析了真空和石英玻璃中, 振幅调制型和位相调制型颗粒污染对光束近场的影响. 研究结果表明, 无论在真空或石英玻璃中, 位相型颗粒污染对高功率激光光束的近场调制影响较大. 且在石英玻璃中, 位相型硬边颗粒污染所引起的高功率激光光束小尺度自聚焦热像调制现象相当严重. 而由颗粒污染引起光束强区的横向偏移, 却在一定程度对小尺度自聚焦有抑制作用.     

Single-step writing of Bragg grating waveguides in fused silica with an externally modulated femtosecond fiber laser

For the first time to our knowledge, high-strength (>30 dB) first-order Bragg grating waveguides were fabricated in bulk fused silica glass in a single-scanning step by modulating a high-repetition-rate femtosecond fiber laser with an external acousto-optic modulator. The modulation induced a waveguide segmentation by delivering controlled bursts of laser pulses to define an array of partially overlapped refractive index voxels. With appropriate choice of modulation frequency and sample scanning speed, low loss waveguides could be formed at high writing speeds to yield sharp Bragg spectral resonances tunable over the 1300 to 1550 nm telecom band. Effects of acousto-optic modulation duty cycle on propagation loss and grating strength are characterized. This modulation method offers facile control and integration of multiwavelength Bragg grating devices to enhance overall functionality of optical circuits in three-dimensional geometries.     

大气湍流对多抖动法相干合成技术中相位调制信号的影响

分析了大气湍流对采用多抖动法实现的相干合成阵列光束中相位调制信号的影响. 文章首先根据广义惠更斯-菲涅耳原理,采用折射率结构函数对大气湍流进行描述,推导了多抖动法相干合成中阵列光束通过大气湍流后相位调制信号的一般表达式. 在此基础上进行数值模拟,分析了传输距离、湍流强度、光束阵列占空比和光斑尺寸等因素对相位调制信号的影响. 研究发现随着传输距离的增大,相位调制信号强度会先增大后减小,存在一个极大值点;随着湍流强度的增强,相位调制信号强度极大值点的出现距离不断缩短;当光束阵列占空比一定时,随着光斑尺寸的增大 关键词： 大气湍流 相干合成 多抖动法 相位调制     

Nonlinear diffraction of super-gaussian laser beams in an array of quantum-dot chains with coulomb interaction taken into account

We consider the propagation of super-Gaussian monochromatic laser beams in a three-dimensional array of quantum dots coupled by the tunneling effect along one axis. The electron energy spectrum of the system corresponds to the Hubbard model, where the Coulomb interaction of electrons in quantum dots is taken into account. The field of the laser beam is described by the Maxwell equations, from which a nonhomogeneous wave equation for the vector potential is obtained. In the approximation of slowly varying amplitudes and phases, the wave equation is reduced to a phenomenological equation describing the electromagnetic field in an array of chains of quantum dots. We study the influence of the system parameters and the frequency of the laser-beam field on the propagation in the medium by solving numerically the phenomenological equation. We obtain the dependence of the factor characterizing the diffraction blooming of the beam in an array of chains of quantum dots on the parameters of the system’s electron energy spectrum.     

飞秒平顶光束经微透镜阵列在熔融石英中的成丝及其超连续辐射

实验研究了平顶激光光束经微透镜阵列在熔融石英中成丝的演化以及超连续辐射的产生,并进一步与高斯光束的成丝和超连续辐射进行了对比研究.分别对这两种光束的多丝传输进行了横向和纵向成像.结果表明,使用平顶光束可以获得更为均匀的多丝分布,成丝的起点也更为一致;尤其重要的是,相对于高斯光束,平顶光束可以使用更高的入射激光脉冲能量而不会造成介质的损伤,从而可以获得更高脉冲能量和更高转换效率的超连续辐射.     

Aluminum thin film enhanced IR nanosecond laser-induced frontside etching of transparent materials

Laser processing of glass is of significant commercial interest for microfabrication of precision optical engineering devices. In this work, a laser ablation enhancement mechanism for microstructuring of glass materials is presented. The method consists of depositing a thin film of aluminum on the front surface of the glass material to be etched. The laser beam modifies the glass material by being incident on this front-side. The influence of ablation fluence in the nanosecond regime, in combination with the deposition of the aluminum layer of various thicknesses, is investigated by determining the ablation threshold for different glass materials including soda-lime, borosilicate, fused silica and sapphire. Experiments are performed using single laser pulse per shot in an air environment. The best enhancement in terms of threshold fluence reduction is obtained for a 16 nm thick aluminum layer where a reduction of two orders of magnitude in the ablation threshold fluence is observed for all the glass samples investigated in this work.     

Ultrafast time-resolved photography of femtosecond laser induced modifications in BK7 glass and fused silica

The dynamics of absorption after excitation of fused silica and BK7 glass with femtosecond laser radiation are visualized by transient absorption spectroscopy. Focusing laser radiation with pulse durations in the picosecond time regime in BK7 glass generates free electrons with relaxation by emission of radiation or by formation of defects. The temporal and spatial emission characteristics are observed by high-speed photography in the streak mode. The beam waist moves within the pulse duration towards the incoming laser radiation by self-focusing and with the laser radiation absorbed by multi-photon processes. The dynamics of the long lasting stress formation is visualized by time-resolved Nomarski-Photography. The modification of the glass is investigated during and after irradiation with ultra-short pulsed laser radiation (100 fs<t_p<3 ps) at the wavelength =810 nm. The formation of a sound wave in fused silica and BK7 glass is observed and the mechanical stress, depending on the excitation pulse duration, is measured. PACS 06.60.Jn; 42.50.Md; 78.47.-p; 81.16.-c; 82.53.-k     

使用多光谱手段研究熔石英断裂机理

熔石英玻璃是高能激光系统中不可缺少的光学材料,其损伤问题一直是限制系统能量提升的瓶颈之一。通过纳秒激光脉冲诱导熔石英玻璃样品产生断裂,并使用多光谱手段对断裂前后样品进行检测,从而在实验和理论上了解了样品断裂形貌及内部相变结构成因,并从宏观到微观上统一解释了断裂形貌和相变结构的关系。在激光等离子冲击波作用下,熔石英发生断裂,且冲击波作用过程中在玻璃内部产生了推动裂纹扩展的尖端环向应力。在尖端环向应力作用下,不同损伤区域形成了不同扩展速度和长度的裂纹, 按照裂纹形貌特性差异可以将断裂区分为雾化区、羽毛区、镜面区三个部分。使用透射光谱、能量散射光谱检测损伤前后样品,发现裂纹的产生引起了玻璃透过率和带隙的下降,且断裂区出现氧原子游离或缺失;使用Raman光谱检测样品损伤前后不同形貌区,发现等离子冲击波使熔石英中Si-O-Si键断裂并发生重组,导致镜面区、羽毛区、雾化区三元拓扑环和四元拓扑环宏观上对应的斯石英相和柯石英相的相对含量依次升高,破坏了材料的固有原子结构特性,使材料断裂区向高密度相转变。氧游离的发生会在玻璃内部产生的大量缺陷,从而使得玻璃透过率及带隙下降,严重影响了玻璃的性能。     

Femtosecond laser-induced microstructure in Foturan glass

We report on the microstructure formation in Foturan glass, induced by 1~kHz, 120 femtosecond laser irradiation. It is found that the line-shaped filamentation, not void array tends to be formed in this glass. This is different from our previous experimental results in fused silica and BK7 glasses. A possible mechanism Ag$^+$ captures the free electrons generated by laser, is proposed to explain the observed phenomena.     

Phase conjugating mirror combining a fused silica rod and a fiber

A phase conjugating mirror combining a fused silica rod and an optical fiber is presented. This configuration combines a large diameter fused silica rod with a high laser damage threshold and an optical fiber with a low stimulated Brillouin scattering (SBS) threshold. The composed SBS generator-amplifier construction, similar to the two-cell type makes a forced SBS process, in which the Stokes beam reflected by the fiber is injected into the fused silica rod. Using this combined phase conjugating mirror in a laser-diode-pumped laser master oscillator power amplifier system, we obtained 42% SBS reflectivity at most at 100 Hz repetition rate. At the same time, the inverse beam quality parameter M(2) is reduced from 3 to 1.6, while at 400 Hz repetition rate, M(2) is reduced from 4 to 1.7.     

Submicrometer grating fabrication in fused silica by interferometric laser-induced backside wet etching technique

Submicrometer period fused silica gratings were produced by two-beam interferometric laser-induced backside wet etching technique (TWIN LIBWE). The fourth harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser beam was spatially filtered in two steps, and the smoothened beam was split into two parts and interfered at incident angles of 60°, 30°, 14°, and 7.7°, respectively, on the backsides of fused silica plates that were in contact with a liquid absorber. The periods of the produced fused silica gratings were, respectively, 154 nm, 266 nm, 550 nm, and 990 nm. In the next step, TWIN-LIBWE setup was completed by using a coupling rectangular prism in order to reach immersion setup, which made possible to fabricate 104 nm period fused silica grating. This is the smallest laser-generated grating constant in fused silica at present. The morphology of the etched gratings was characterized by atomic force microscope. Important parameters (modulation depth, low-pass filtered waviness, quality factor) of the produced gratings were determined. Evolution of the grating parameters was also studied in the 990 nm case: the dependence of modulation depth, waviness, and quality factor on the number of laser pulses was investigated.     

Materials processing with a tightly focused femtosecond laser vortex pulse

In this Letter we present the first (to our knowledge) demonstration of material modification using tightly focused single femtosecond laser vortex pulses. Double-charge femtosecond vortices were synthesized with a polarization-singularity beam converter based on light propagation in a uniaxial anisotropic medium and then focused using moderate- and high-NA optics (viz., NA=0.45 and 0.9) to ablate fused silica and soda-lime glass. By controlling the pulse energy, we consistently machine micrometer-size ring-shaped structures with <100nm uniform groove thickness.     

Ultraviolet conical emission produced by high-power femtosecond laser pulse in transparent media

In this work, supercontinuum conical emission (SC CE) accompanying the filamentation of powerful ultrashort laser pulse in BK₇ glass and fused silica is studied. The SC CE is controlled by the laser power density and the sample thickness, and the minimum SC CE cut-off wavelength is about 309?nm in the BK₇ glass and 237?nm in the fused silica. The angular distributions of the SC CE in the wavelength range less than 510?nm are measured by using a new method, and it cannot be explained by the Cerenkov emission theory but the unabridged X-Waves solution theory. Meanwhile numerical simulations of the propagation of femtosecond laser pulse in sample are performed to provide theoretical support to our results.     

Femtosecond laser writing of porous capillaries inside fused silica glass

We demonstrate that within a restricted optical pulse duration-pulse energy parameter space tightly focused femtosecond laser radiation can be used to fabricate porous capillaries in bulk fused silica glass by simply moving the laser focus through the material. We show that the rate of penetration of liquids into the porous capillaries can be controlled by the laser polarization, which determines their morphology. The fluid propagation is measured using the form birefringence of nanocrack/nanovoid structures produced inside the capillaries. We also demonstrate the nanofiltration capabilities of the capillaries by separating the relatively small molecules of Rhodamine 6G dye from their solvent.     

Surface plasmon scattering on polymer-bimetal layer covered fused silica gratings generated by laser induced backside wet etching

Large amplitude fused silica gratings are prepared by combining the UV laser induced backside wet etching technique (LIBWE) and the two-beam interference method. The periodic patterning of fused silica surfaces is realized by s-polarized fourth harmonic beams of a Nd:YAG laser, applying saturated solution of naphthalene in methyl-methacrylate as liquid absorber. Atomic force microscopy is utilized to analyze how the modulation amplitude of the grating can be controlled by the fluence and number of laser pulses. Three types of plasmonic structures are prepared by a bottom-up method, post-evaporating the fused silica gratings by gold-silver bimetal layers, spin-coating the metal structures by thin polycarbonate films, and irradiating the multilayers by UV laser. The effect of the bimetal and polymer-coated bimetal gratings on the surface plasmon resonance is investigated in a modified Kretschmann arrangement allowing polar and azimuthal angle scans. It is demonstrated experimentally that scattering on rotated gratings results in additional minima on the resonance curves of plasmons excited by second harmonic beam of a continuous Nd:YAG laser. The azimuthal angle dependence proves that these additional minima originate from back-scattering. The analogous reflectivity minima were obtained by scattering matrix method calculations realized taking modulation depths measured on bimetal gratings into account.     

Propagation of partially coherent partially phase-locked laser array in turbulent atmosphere

The mechanism for beam quality degradation in recently developed phase locking of high power solid state lasers, which is caused mainly by partially coherent property of element beam and partially phase locking of the laser array, is analyzed in detail. Analytical expression for propagation of partially coherent partially phase-locked laser array in turbulent atmosphere is obtained based on extended Huygens-Fresnel principle. The effect of coherence width, phase error and intensity of turbulence on the beam quality in the target-plane is studied in detail. The tolerance on phase error for laser array with different coherence property is analyzed. It is concluded that the laser array with better coherence is more sensitive to turbulence, and phase control can improve beam quality in the receiving plane only in the case when the element beam has good beam quality and propagates in weak turbulence.     

Hybrid laser processing for microfabrication of glass

Hybrid laser processing for the precision microfabrication of glass materials, in which the interaction of a conventional pulsed laser beam and a medium on the material surface leads to effective ablation and modification, is reviewed. A major role of the medium is to produce strong absorption of the conventional laser beam by the material. Simultaneous irradiation by a vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) laser beam that possesses an extremely small laser fluence and an ultraviolet (UV) laser greatly improves the ablation quality and modification efficiency for fused silica (VUV-UV multiwavelength excitation process). The metal plasma generated by the laser beam effectively assists high-quality ablation of transparent materials by the same laser beam, resulting in microstructuring, cutting, color marking, printing, and selective metallization of glass materials (laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation (LIPAA)). The detailed discussion presented here includes the ablation mechanism of hybrid laser processing. Received: 18 December 2002 / Accepted: 20 January 2003 / Published online: 28 May 2003 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-48/462-4682, E-mail: ksugioka@postman.riken.go.jp     

熔石英亚表面修复形貌对光场的调制

基于标量衍射理论, 计算了熔石英亚表面高斯型修复形貌对于光场的调制，用Matlab对结果进行了仿真并与实验结果进行了比较。所得结果表明，二者有较好的一致性, 一定尺度的高斯面型修复形貌会对光场产生调制，且调制度随光场传输位置变化，通过适当选择后续光学元件位置，可降低光场调制造成光学元件损伤的风险。     

激光诱导等离子体的气体动力学和燃烧波扩展速度研究

针对激光对熔石英材料产生致燃损伤过程中存在的激光支持燃烧波,考虑激光作用的温度残余、目标形貌的改变、喷溅物质分布、目标表面气流状况的分布等效应,分阶段对激光支持燃烧波的过程进行建模和仿真研究.通过建立二维轴对称气体动力学模型,模拟研究包含逆韧致辐射、热辐射、热传导和对流过程在内的激光能量传输过程.此外,依据激光支持燃烧波在可见光波段具有明显的辐射特征这一特点,利用阴影法测量了激光对熔石英致燃损伤过程中的燃烧波扩展速度,得到了燃烧波演化过程图像.研究结果表明:在平行激光束作用下,燃烧波的传播是稳态的,气体动力学行为比较稳定;在聚焦激光束作用下,燃烧波的传播是非稳态的.模拟结果中得到的激光支持燃烧波扩展速度及气体动力学结构与实验结果和理论推导结果符合得很好,验证了理论模型的正确性.