Optical waveguide fabrication and integration with a micro-mirror inside photosensitive glass by femtosecond laser direct writing

Photosensitive glass is a potentially important material for micro-fluidic devices that can be integrated with micro-optical components for biochemical analysis. Here, we demonstrate the fabrication of optical waveguides inside glass by femtosecond laser direct writing. The influence of the laser parameters on the waveguide properties is investigated, and it is revealed that the waveguide mode can be well controlled. The single mode is achieved at a low writing energy, while the multimode is achieved with increasing energy. In spite of a longitudinally elongated elliptical shape of the cross-sectional profile, the far-field pattern of the single-mode waveguide shows an almost symmetric profile. The measured propagation loss and the coupling loss are evaluated to be ∼0.6 dB/cm and ∼1.6 dB at a wavelength of 632.8 nm, respectively, under the conditions of 1.0–2.0 μJ pulse energy and 200–500 μm/s scan speed. The increased optical loss is associated with a higher waveguide mode at higher writing energy. Furthermore, the integration of waveguides and a micromirror made of a hollow microplate inside the glass is demonstrated to bend the laser beam at an angle of 90° in a small chip. The bending loss is estimated to be smaller than 0.3 dB. PACS 42.62.-b; 42.82.Cr; 82.50.Pt; 42.79.Gn; 42.81.Qb     

飞秒激光加工蓝宝石超衍射纳米结构

蓝宝石具有超强硬度及耐腐蚀、耐高温、在紫外-红外波段具有良好的透光性等优点,在军工业以及医疗器械方面具有广泛的应用前景.然而这些优点又对蓝宝石的机械加工或化学腐蚀加工带来困难.飞秒激光脉冲具有热损伤小、加工分辨率高、材料选择广等特点,被广泛应用于固体材料改性和高精度三维微纳器件加工.本文提出了利用飞秒激光多光子吸收特性在蓝宝石表面实现超越光学衍射极限的精细加工.利用聚焦后的波长为343 nm的飞秒激光,配合高精密三维压电位移台,实现激光焦点和蓝宝石晶体的相对三维移动,在蓝宝石晶体衬底上进行精确扫描,得到了线宽约61 nm的纳米线,纳米线间的最小间距达到142 nm左右.利用等离子体模型解释了加工得到的纳米条纹的产生原因,研究了激光功率、扫描速度对加工分辨率的影响.最终本工作实现了超越光学衍射极限的加工精度,为实现利用飞秒激光对高硬度材料的微纳结构制备提供了参考.     

Ultra-low-loss inverted taper coupler for silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguide

An ultra-low-loss coupler for interfacing a silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguide and a single-mode fiber in both polarizations is presented. The inverted taper coupler, embedded in a polymer waveguide, is optimized for both the transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric modes through tapering the width of the silicon-on-insulator waveguide from 450 nm down to less than 15 nm applying a thermal oxidation process. Two inverted taper couplers are integrated with a 3-mm long silicon-on-insulator ridge waveguide in the fabricated sample. The measured coupling losses of the inverted taper coupler for transverse-magnetic and transverse-electric modes are ∼ 0.36 dB and ∼ 0.66 dB per connection, respectively.     

Design and fabrication of a three-dimensional polymer optical waveguide polarization splitter

We present a design and fabrication of a three-dimensional polymer optical waveguide polarization splitter by taking into consideration of the induced birefringence effect of the polymer. We show that it is not possible to couple TM light from one waveguide to the other but evanescent coupling for TE light is possible. Hence the polarization splitter can be designed by considering TE mode coupling alone. This has an advantage of short interaction length of the device. Based on this consideration, we fabricated a polarization splitter with a TE extinction ratio of 15 dB and TM extinction ratio of 21 dB.     

A Y-junction polymer optical waveguide interleaver

A novel C + L band polymeric PLC interleaver using Y-junction structure is reported. The principle of operation and the fabrication are described, and the alignment and temperature characteristics are also investigated. This interleaver has wide bandwidth of operation, about 50 nm. The channel spacing is 1.6 nm and maximum isolation 28 dB.     

偶氮聚合物薄膜的全光极化研究

报告了分散红共聚物膜HMMM-DR1,HMMM-DR19和偶氮侧链聚合物膜PCN6和PCN2的合成和制备, 并以HMMM-DR1和PCN6为代表比较研究了这两种具有不同吸收性质材料的全光极化特性,研究了他们的实时极化和弛豫过程,对他们的全光极化性质作了最基本的表征.研究了倍频光吸收对薄膜光极化效率的影响,讨论了偶氮聚合物材料光诱导二阶非线性极化率的效率和倍频光透射率之间的折衷关系,这对实用化的全光器件的研制是至关重要的.实验确证了在PCN6薄膜中实现了准相位匹配.对厚膜中光诱导二阶非线性极化率的弛豫抑制效应作出解释.     

Compact tunable three-dimensional polymer optical waveguide comb filter

A compact channel spacing tunable polymeric three-dimensional (3D) comb filter has been designed and fabricated. This comb filter is made of three waveguides laid in two different but parallel layers: one is in the lower layer and the other two are in the upper layer. These two waveguides in upper layer do not cross each other but instead each twice cross over the waveguide in the lower layer. At each crossing point an electrode heater is deposited on the top surface to adjust the coupling ratio between these guides. By supplying power to each heater pair, respectively, the channel spacing can be selected to be either 1.6 nm or 0.8 nm; in addition a flat-top spectral response may be obtained at the 1.6 nm channel spacing if power is supplied to both the heater pairs simultaneously.     

All polymer asymmetric Mach-Zehnder interferometer waveguide sensor by imprinting bonding and laser polishing

We present an all polymer asymmetric Mach–Zehnder interferometer(AMZI) waveguide sensor based on imprinting bonding and laser polishing method. The fabrication methods are compatible with high accuracy waveguide sensing structure. The rectangle waveguide structure of this sensor has three sensing surfaces contacting the test media, and its sensing accuracy can be increased 5 times compared with that of one surface sensing structure. An AMZI device structure is designed. The single mode condition, the length of the sensing arm, and the length deviation between the sensing arm and the reference arm are optimized. The length deviation is optimized to be 19.8 μm in a refractive index range between1.470 and 1.545. We fabricate the AMZI waveguide by lithography and wet etching method. The imprinting bonding and laser polishing method is proposed and investigated. The insertion loss is between-80.36 dB and-10.63 dB. The average and linear sensitivity are 768.1 d B/RIU and 548.95 dB/RIU, respectively. And the average and linear detection resolution of the sensor are 1.30×10~(-6) RIU(RIU: refractive index unit) and 1.82×10~(-5) RIU, respectively. This sensor has a fast and cost-effective fabrication process which can be used in the cases of requiring portability and disposability.     

Nano peel-off fabrication pattern with polymer overcoat layer on glassy carbon electrodes for Pt electrodeposition

This article describes a new technique for fabricating an electrocatalyst model in which the particle size and interparticle distance are controlled independently. We designed a uniform insulating polymer layer as a mask on an electroconductive glassy carbon substrate and then peeled off a part of the layer in nano-sized dots by scratching the overcoat layer using an atomic force microscope (AFM) cantilever. Pt particles electrodeposited only on the peeled off area of the glassy carbon. To peel-off a small area on the glassy carbon, a 29 ± 2 nm thick insulating polymer overcoat layer and a cantilever operating area of 10 nm × 10 nm were used, and the smallest peel-off area obtained was 30 nm × 30 nm. Thereafter, we performed the peel-off procedure on the polymer overcoat layer of the glassy carbon substrate having a cantilever operating area of 80 nm × 80 nm. Pt deposition of 100–150 nm in diameter was successfully achieved by adjusting the interparticle distance.     

飞秒激光精密微纳加工的研究进展

飞秒激光由于其超快时间特性和超高峰值功率特性在精密微纳加工领域引起了人们广泛的重视．在与物质的相互作用中它能快速、准确地将能量作用在特定的区域内，从而可以获得极高的分辨率和加工精度。文章综述了飞秒激光精密微纳加工的最新研究进展，分别就飞秒激光烧蚀微加工和飞秒激光双光子聚合产生三维微纳结构进行了介绍，阐述了各自的物理机制．最后对飞秒激光微纳加工的研究前景做了初步探讨。     

极坐标激光直写法制作圆对称连续衍射元件掩模的能量表征方法研究

采用激光直写法制作连续衍射光学元件,具有过程简单、周期短、成本低等优点。介绍了极坐标激光直写法制作圆对称连续衍射元件的原理。通过实验,研究了衍射微结构深度与激光功率、曝光位置半径与激光功率的关系。实验结果显示,在相同曝光位置半径条件下,微结构深度与激光功率呈正比;在相同微结构深度条件下,曝光位置半径与激光功率呈正比。分析总结出了极坐标激光直写法制作圆对称连续衍射元件的能量表征方法,并采用该方法成功制作了圆对称连续衍射聚光透镜掩模。     

通过光致还原调制氧化石墨烯寿命并用于微纳图形制备

氧化石墨烯因其宽带可调谐的荧光发射特性已被广泛应用于荧光成像、金属离子高灵敏检测和光电器件的制备.相比于荧光强度,氧化石墨烯荧光寿命不受材料厚度和激发功率的影响,具有更为稳定和均一的特性.本文研究了在激光还原过程中氧化石墨烯荧光寿命逐渐减小的变化行为,发现了长寿命sp~3杂化结构向短寿命sp~2杂化结构的转变.通过精确控制还原时间,结合激光直写技术,在单层氧化石墨烯薄膜上实现了二维码、条形码、图形和数字等微纳图形的制备,还在多层氧化石墨烯薄膜结构上获得了多寿命多层微纳图形.这种微纳图形的制备具有灵活无掩膜、高对比和多模式的特点,可用于高密度光学存储、信息显示和光电器件制备等诸多领域.     

The fabrication of polymer-based evanescent optical waveguide for biosensing

A polymer waveguide was fabricated to amplify the evanescent optical field for biosensing. The structure of waveguide was designed to propagate a normal single mode at the input and output regions for low loss beam coupling and propagation. A sensing region was formed in the middle of the waveguide to activate the evanescent mode and to induce high birefringence by depositing a thin dielectric film with a high refractive index on a single mode waveguide. A polymer waveguide with the dimensions of 7 μm-width and 2.5 μm-thickness was fabricated by photolithography and dry-etching. The active region of the TiO₂ thin film was fabricated with the dimensions of 20 mm-length, 20 nm-thickness and 2 mm-tapered tail. A polarimetric interference technique was used to evaluate the evanescent waveguide biosensor, and biomaterial such as glycerol was tested. The sensitivity of the sensor increased with increasing TiO₂ film thickness. For the fabricated waveguide with a 20 nm-thick TiO₂ film, the measured index change to the lead phase variation of 2π was 1.8 × 10⁻⁴.     

Single-mode rib polymer waveguides and electro-optic polymer waveguide switches

Mode-matching and effective index methods are used to analyze single-mode operation of optical rib polymer waveguides. Their single-mode waveguiding conditions are determined. Single-mode rib waveguides fabricated from guest–host polyetherketone are presented. The estimated propagation loss of straight rib-waveguides is 0.7 dB/cm at 1.55 μm. Furthermore, by using the mode field-transfer matrix method, 2×2 and 4×4 polymer Mach–Zehnder interference switch operating at 1.55 μm wavelength has been designed based on optical multi-mode interference.     

飞秒激光精密微纳加工的研究进展

飞秒激光由于其超快时间特性和超高峰值功率特性在精密微纳加工领域引起了人们广泛的重视.在与物质的相互作用中它能快速、准确地将能量作用在特定的区域内,从而可以获得极高的分辨率和加工精度.文章综述了飞秒激光精密微纳加工的最新研究进展,分别就飞秒激光烧蚀微加工和飞秒激光双光子聚合产生三维微纳结构进行了介绍,阐述了各自的物理机制.最后对飞秒激光微纳加工的研究前景做了初步探讨.     

Continuation of periodic solutions in the waveguide array mode-locked laser

We apply the adjoint continuation method to construct highly accurate, periodic solutions that are observed to play a critical role in the multi-pulsing transition of mode-locked laser cavities. The method allows for the construction of solution branches and the identification of their bifurcation structure. Supplementing the adjoint continuation method with a computation of the Floquet multipliers allows for explicit determination of the stability of each branch. This method reveals that, when gain is increased, the multi-pulsing transition starts with a Hopf bifurcation, followed by a period-doubling bifurcation, and a saddle-node bifurcation for limit cycles. Finally, the system exhibits chaotic dynamics and transitions to the double-pulse solutions. Although this method is applied specifically to the waveguide array mode-locking model, the multi-pulsing transition is conjectured to be ubiquitous and these results agree with experimental and computational results from other models.     

Identification of the alignment of azobenzene molecules induced by all-optical poling in polymer film

The alignment of azobenzene molecules in DR19-PUI film induced by all-optical poling is identified. When the writing beams of frequencies ω and 2ω are both linearly polarized with their polarization directions parallel to each other, azobenzene molecules tend to reorient to perpendicular direction (i.e. direction perpendicular to the polarization of writing beams). At the end of the writing process more molecules orient in perpendicular direction than those in parallel direction (i.e. direction parallel to the polarization of writing beams). The alignment of molecules in parallel or perpendicular direction is, respectively, characteristic of noncentrosymmetry or centrosymmetry. It is the alignment of molecules in parallel direction that results in the second-order nonlinearity in the poled film.     

Laser writing techniques for photomask fabrication using a femtosecond laser

Photomasks are the backbone of microfabrication industries. Currently they are fabricated by a lithographic process, which is very expensive and time consuming since it is a multi-step process. These issues can be addressed by fabricating photomasks by direct femtosecond laser writing, which is a single-step process and comparatively cheaper and faster than lithography. In this paper we discuss our investigations on the effect of two types of laser writing techniques, namely front- and rear-side laser writing, with regard to the feature size and the edge quality of a feature. It is proved conclusively that for the patterning of masks, front-side laser writing is a better technique than rear-side laser writing with regard to smaller feature size and better edge quality. Moreover the energy required for front-side laser writing is considerably lower than that for rear-side laser writing. Received: 22 May 2001 / Accepted: 14 September 2001 / Published online: 17 October 2001     

Second harmonic generation by femtosecond Yb-doped fiber laser source based on PPKTP waveguide fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing

The frequency doubling of femtosecond pulses from an Yb-doped fiber laser source was demonstrated in a PPKTP waveguide fabricated by femtosecond laser direct writing. The PPKTP waveguide contains a fixed period of 8.9 μm and the feomtosecond fundamental pulses have a central wavelength of 1044 nm. A maximum SHG power of 406 mW was produced, yielding a conversion efficiency of 5.6%. Numerical simulations were carried out to investigate the property of frequency doubling for femtosecond pulses. The results show that the SHG process proceeds even the quasi-phase-matching (QPM) condition is not well satisfied, which is significantly different from that of “long” pulses or CW light and is accorded with the experimental results.