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Non-reciprocal ultrafast laser writing

Non-reciprocal ultrafast laser writing
Non-reciprocal ultrafast laser writing
Photosensitivity is a material property that is relevant to many phenomena and applications, from photosynthesis and photography to optical data storage and ultrafast laser writing. It was commonly thought that, in a homogeneous medium, photosensitivity and the corresponding light-induced material modifications do not change on reversing the direction of light propagation. Here we demonstrate that when the direction of the femtosecond laser beam is reversed from the +z to -z direction, the structures written in LiNbO3 crystal when translating the beam along the +y and -y directions are mirrored. In a non-centrosymmetric medium, modification of the material can therefore differ for light propagating in opposite directions. This is the first evidence of a new optical phenomenon of non-reciprocal photosensitivity. We interpret this effect in terms of light pressure and associated heat flow, resulting in a temperature gradient in homogeneous media without inversion symmetry under uniform intense irradiation.
1749-4885
99-104
Yang, Weijia
ecad1a03-22e3-4a91-b6e6-a5f8660e2ab4
Kazansky, Peter G.
a5d123ec-8ea8-408c-8963-4a6d921fd76c
Svirko, Yuri P.
d64a0366-ef29-4a31-878e-54f7536816ac
Yang, Weijia
ecad1a03-22e3-4a91-b6e6-a5f8660e2ab4
Kazansky, Peter G.
a5d123ec-8ea8-408c-8963-4a6d921fd76c
Svirko, Yuri P.
d64a0366-ef29-4a31-878e-54f7536816ac

Yang, Weijia, Kazansky, Peter G. and Svirko, Yuri P. (2008) Non-reciprocal ultrafast laser writing. Nature Photonics, 2 (2), 99-104. (doi:10.1038/nphoton.2007.276).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Photosensitivity is a material property that is relevant to many phenomena and applications, from photosynthesis and photography to optical data storage and ultrafast laser writing. It was commonly thought that, in a homogeneous medium, photosensitivity and the corresponding light-induced material modifications do not change on reversing the direction of light propagation. Here we demonstrate that when the direction of the femtosecond laser beam is reversed from the +z to -z direction, the structures written in LiNbO3 crystal when translating the beam along the +y and -y directions are mirrored. In a non-centrosymmetric medium, modification of the material can therefore differ for light propagating in opposite directions. This is the first evidence of a new optical phenomenon of non-reciprocal photosensitivity. We interpret this effect in terms of light pressure and associated heat flow, resulting in a temperature gradient in homogeneous media without inversion symmetry under uniform intense irradiation.

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Published date: February 2008
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 50687
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/50687
ISSN: 1749-4885
PURE UUID: 4a09de08-56b5-4e04-acbb-fb9d4745edaf

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Date deposited: 13 Mar 2008
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 10:10

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Contributors

Author: Weijia Yang
Author: Peter G. Kazansky
Author: Yuri P. Svirko

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