3-D microstructuring inside photosensitive glass by femtosecond laser excitation

We show that a femtosecond laser enables us to produce true three-dimensional (3-D) microstructures embedded in a photosensitive glass, which has superior properties of transparency, hardness and chemical and thermal resistances. The photosensitivity arises from the cerium in the glass. After exposure to a focused laser beam, latent images are written. Modified regions are developed by a post-baking process and then preferentially etched away in a 10% dilute solution of hydrofluoric acid at room temperature. We have measured the critical dose for modification of the photosensitive glass, and fabricated 3-D microstructures with microcells and hollow microchannels embedded in the glass based on the critical dose. Received: 12 August 2002 / Accepted: 13 August 2002 / Published online: 4 December 2002 RID="*" ID="*"Corresponding author. Fax: +81-48/468-4682, E-mail: mmasudaw@postman.riken.go.jp     

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     

Three-dimensional integration of microoptical components buried inside photosensitive glass by femtosecond laser direct writing

We report the three-dimensional (3D) integration of microoptical components such as microlenses, micromirrors and optical waveguides in a single glass chip by femtosecond (fs) laser direct writing. First, two types of microoptical lenses were fabricated inside photosensitive Foturan glass by forming hollow microstructures using fs laser direct writing followed by thermal treatment, successive wet etching and additional annealing. One type of lens is the cylindrical microlens with a curvature radius R of 1.0 mm, and the other is the plano-convex microlens with radius R of 0.75 mm. Subsequently, by the continuous procedure of hollow microstructure fabrication, a micromirror was integrated with the plano-convex microlens in the single glass chip. Further integration of waveguides was performed by internal refractive index modification using fs laser direct writing after the hollow structure fabrication of the microlens and the micromirror. A demonstration of the laser beam transmission in the integrated optical microdevice shows that the 3D integration of waveguides with a micromirror and a microoptical lens in a single glass chip is highly effective for light beam guiding and focusing. PACS 42.62.-b; 81.05.Kf; 42.82.Cr; 82.50.Pt; 42.79.Gn     

Three-dimensional microfluidic structure embedded in photostructurable glass by femtosecond laser for lab-on-chip applications

A new technology for rapid prototyping of lab-on-chip devices is described. Direct write of a near-infrared femtosecond laser forms three-dimensional (3D) latent images inside photostructurable glass. Modified regions are developed by a post-annealing and then preferentially etched away in dilute hydrofluoric acid solution with an etching selectivity of 40–50 times, resulting in the formation of true 3D hollow microstructures inside the glass. Microfluidic structures with microcells and microchannels embedded in the glass are fabricated by this technique. PACS 42.62.-b; 47.85.Np; 81.05.Kf     

Three-dimensional micro-optical components embedded in photosensitive glass by a femtosecond laser

We show that three-dimensional micro-optical components can be embedded in a photosensitive glass by a femtosecond (fs) laser. After exposure to the tightly focused fs laser beam, latent images are written inside the sample. Modified regions are developed by a postbaking process and then preferentially etched away in a 10%-dilute solution of hydrofluoric acid. After this process, hollow internal structures are formed that act as a mirror and a beam splitter. Furthermore, we find that postannealing smoothes the surfaces of the fabricated hollow structures, resulting in great improvement of their optical properties.     

Direct fabrication of a microfluidic chip for electrophoresis analysis by water-assisted femtosecond laser writing in porous glass

We report the direct fabrication of a microfluidic chip composed of two high-aspect ratio microfluidic channels with lengths of 3.5 cm and 8 mm in a glass substrate by femtosecond laser micromachining. The fabrication mainly consists of two steps: 1) writing microchannels and microchambers in a porous glass by scanning a tightly focused laser beam; 2) high-temperature annealing of the glass sample to collapse all the nanopores in the glass. Migration of derivatized amino acids is observed in the microfluidic channel by applying electric voltage across the long-migration microchannel.     

Direct writing waveguides inside YAG crystal by femtosecond laser

A 120 fs Ti-sapphire laser was used to fabricate waveguides in YAG crystal. A 7 mm long waveguide was written at a position of 100 μm below the surface, which shows multimode propagation at 633 nm with optical attenuation of about 0.2 dB/mm. The light guiding occurs in the region around the visible laser-damaged region, indicating that the light guiding area is induced by stress. The waveguide exhibited strong birefringence property with maximum magnitude of about 1.5 × 10⁻⁵. Infrared and Raman spectroscopy analysis indicate there is no change in chemical composition in laser-modified zone.     

Three‐dimensional femtosecond laser micromachining of photosensitive glass for biomicrochips

Internal modification of transparent materials such as glass can be carried out using multiphoton absorption induced by a femtosecond (fs) laser. The fs‐laser modification followed by thermal treatment and successive chemical wet etching in a hydrofluoric (HF) acid solution forms three‐dimensional (3D) hollow microstructures embedded in photosensitive glass. This technique is a powerful method for directly fabricating 3D microfluidic structures inside a photosensitive glass microchip. We used fabricated microchips, referred to as a nanoaquarium, for dynamic observations of living microorganisms. In addition, the present technique can also be used to form microoptical components such as micromirrors and microlenses inside the photosensitive glass, since the fabricated structures have optically flat surfaces. The integration of microfluidics and microoptical components in a single glass chip yields biophotonic microchips, in other words, optofluidics, which provide high sensitivity in absorption and fluorescence measurements of small volumes of liquid samples.     

Direct fabrication of surface-relief grating by interferometric technique using femtosecond laser

A surface-relief grating is a key element in optical communication and opto-electronic integrated devices. To date, many techniques for fabricating surface-relief gratings have been reported, but the present techniques still have many limitations and disadvantages. In this paper we present a new optical configuration to imprint a surface-relief grating by two-beam interferometry using a femtosecond laser. A relatively simple set-up is proposed in order to generate two parallel laser beams and then focus them by a common focusing lens to obtain an interference pattern. With the use of the common focusing lens, the two parallel beams will interfere exactly at the focal plane. This new optical set-up not only facilitates the alignment but also enhances the tunability to obtain different grating periods. Experimental results on solid copper targets are presented. The grating surface morphologies are studied by a scanning electron microscope and the grating relief profiles are characterized by an atomic force microscope. The prominent experimental results obtained have verified the feasibility of the new technique. In addition, the influence of laser fluence and pulse number on the surface morphology is presented. PACS 42.15.Eq; 42.25.Hz; 42.62.Cf     

Fabrication of 3D microfluidic structures inside glass by femtosecond laser micromachining

Femtosecond lasers have opened up new avenues in materials processing due to their unique characteristics of ultrashort pulse widths and extremely high peak intensities. One of the most important features of femtosecond laser processing is that a femtosecond laser beam can induce strong absorption in even transparent materials due to nonlinear multiphoton absorption. This makes it possible to directly create three-dimensional (3D) microfluidic structures in glass that are of great use for fabrication of biochips. For fabrication of the 3D microfluidic structures, two technical approaches are being attempted. One of them employs femtosecond laser-induced internal modification of glass followed by wet chemical etching using an acid solution (Femtosecond laser-assisted wet chemical etching), while the other one performs femtosecond laser 3D ablation of the glass in distilled water (liquid-assisted femtosecond laser drilling). This paper provides a review on these two techniques for fabrication of 3D micro and nanofluidic structures in glass based on our development and experimental results.     

Optical waveguide writing inside Foturan glass with femtosecond laser pulses

We investigated the femtosecond laser writing of optical waveguides inside Foturan glass at various pulse energies and focusing depths. An optimal waveguide fabricated solely by femtosecond laser irradiation showed a refractive index modulation of ∼1.7×10^-3 and a minimum transmission loss of ∼0.80 dB/cm. This type of waveguide had lower transmission loss than those fabricated by a hybrid process of femtosecond laser exposure and following thermal treatment. An optical splitter was also fabricated at high pulse energy. PACS 42.65.Re; 42.82.Et; 42.70.Gi     

Direct femtosecond laser fabrication of antireflective layer on GaAs surface

Photoinduced linear electrooptical (EO) effect was studied for Zinc oxide nanofilms doped by Nd. We have chosen Nd rare earth impurity with different contents to explore its influence on photoinduced EO. The kinetics of the photoinduced EO changes was studied. We have chosen the bicolor coherent 10 ns Nd:YAG laser pulses with power densities varying up to about 1 GW/cm² as the photoinducing beam. The enhancement of the photoinduced liner EO and its relaxation was explored. Additionally, the study of the photoinduced trapping levels within the energy gap was performed and the explanation of the obtained results is given.     

Generating optical vortex with computer-generated hologram fabricated inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses

We introduce a novel method to generate the optical vortex with computer-generated hologram (CGH) fabricated inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses. The CGH was directly written inside glass by femtosecond laser pulses induced microexplosion without any pre- or post-treatment of the material. We also realized the restructured optical vortex beams of both the transmission and reflection pattern with high fidelity using a collimated He-Ne laser beam. The total diffractive efficiency of both the transmission and reflection pattern is about 4.79%.     

Direct joining of glass substrates by 1 kHz femtosecond laser pulses

When a femtosecond laser pulse is focused at the interface of two transparent substrates, localised melting and quenching of the two substrates occur around the focal volume, bridging them due to nonlinear absorption. The substrates can then be joined by resolidification of the materials. We investigate the optimum irradiation conditions needed to join borosilicate glass substrates and fused silica substrates using a 1 kHz 800 nm Ti:sapphire amplifier. We characterised the joint strength and the transmittance through joint volumes as a function of laser energy and translation velocity. We found that a joining strength as large as 14.9 MPa could be obtained in both fused silica and borosilicate glass. Annealing the joint samples led to an increase in the joint strength. PACS 42.65.Jx; 42.70.Ce; 81.20.Vj     

Fabrication of 3D microoptical lenses in photosensitive glass using femtosecond laser micromachining

We describe the fabrication of microoptical cylindrical and hemispherical lenses vertically embedded in a photosensitive Foturan glass by femtosecond (fs) laser three-dimensional (3D) micromachining. The process is mainly composed of four steps: (1) fs laser scanning in the photosensitive glass to form curved surfaces (spherical and/or cylindrical); (2) postannealing of the sample for modification of the exposed areas; (3) chemical etching of the sample for selective removal of the modified areas; and (4) a second postannealing for smoothening the surfaces of the tiny lenses. We examine the focusing ability of the microoptical lenses using a He-Ne laser beam, showing the great potential of using these microoptical lenses in lab-on-a-chip applications. PACS 42.62.-b; 81.05.Kf; 82.50.Pt     

Rapid fabrication of optical volume gratings in Foturan glass by femtosecond laser micromachining

We report on rapid fabrication of optical volume gratings in Foturan glass using a modulated femtosecond laser focused with cylindrical lenses. An optical volume grating with an area of 2 mm ×3 mm and ∼2 mm thickness can be achieved within 10 min by use of this method. Optical micrography confirms the volume nature of the gratings and shows that they consist of 10 μm-thickness planes with a period of 15 μm. The diffraction efficiency is examined to be ∼56%. The limitations and future implementations of the fabricated volume gratings are discussed.     

Selective metallization of photostructurable glass by femtosecond laser direct writing for biochip application

We report the selective metallization of photostructurable glass by femtosecond (fs) laser direct writing followed by electroless copper (Cu) plating. It was found that a Cu thin film can be deposited only on the rough surface of glass ablated by the fs laser. The deposited Cu thin film exhibits strong adhesion and excellent electrical properties. A Cu film can even be deposited on the internal wall of a hollow microchannel inside photostructurable glass by the multiphoton absorption of the fs laser. To show the use of this technique for micro-total-analysis-system (μ-TAS) applications, the fabrication of a microheater operating at temperatures up to 200 °C was demonstrated. PACS 81.05.Kf; 85.40.Ls; 87.85.Va     

Water-assisted drilling of microfluidic chambers inside silica glass with femtosecond laser pulses

Microfluidic chambers embedded in silica glass are drilled by water-assisted ablation with a femtosecond laser. The continuous scanning ablation increases the processing speed up to 50 μm/s. Not only may microchambers or microtrenches be obtained at high speed and in one step, but also combined structures consisting of cascaded microchambers and microtrenches may be fabricated. The inner-wall morphology of the microchambers is analyzed by a scanning electron microscope. PACS 87.80.Mj; 52.38.Mf; 82.50.Pt; 42.62.-b; 42.70.Ce     

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     

金纳米棒的飞秒激光组装研究

金属纳米粒子对于研究表面等离子体共振具有非常重要的意义,其自组装形成的功能组装体能够展现出更加优异的整体协同性能.本文通过飞秒激光加工对金纳米棒直接进行组装,不引入其它的修饰剂,过程简单、快速(约1 min),不仅保留了金纳米棒表面等离子特性,且可以实现金纳米棒的任意精细图案化.将组装的微纳结构用于微流控芯片表面增强拉曼散射探测,可以得到很好的增强效果,为等离子体器件的制备提供了新的方法.