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Extraordinary modifications and structures in glass produced by ultrafast laser writing

Extraordinary modifications and structures in glass produced by ultrafast laser writing
Extraordinary modifications and structures in glass produced by ultrafast laser writing
Femtosecond laser direct writing offers unique potential for realizing photonic devices in the bulk of variety transparent materials including glasses and crystals. Investigation of extraordinary anisotropic modifications produced by femtosecond laser irradiation in glass and related phenomena is important for elucidating the mechanisms of light-matter interaction and device fabrication with unique features, such as space variant birefringence. Polarization grating is one example of such devices with can act as a beam splitter for circular polarized light. Moreover circularly polarized photons carry spin-angular momentum, and an encounter with a gradient of refractive index leads to spin-orbital momentum coupling. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that due to this effect the circularly polarized light impinging on the sphere will produce beam with orbital angular momentum ±2. The method is applied to generate array of optical vortexes on a small scale using micro-spheres produced by femtosecond laser in silica glass. Furthermore a new phenomenon of ultrafast light blade, representing itself the first evidence of anisotropic sensitivity of glass due to hidden asymmetry of ultrafast laser beam has been recently discovered. This phenomenon enables polarization control of ultrafast laser writing using pulses with tilted intensity front. We anticipate that the observed extraordinary anisotropic modifications in glass and related phenomena will open new opportunities in laser material processing, fabrication of unique photonic structures and controlling of intense light propagation.
Kazansky, P.G.
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Beresna, Martynas
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Corbari, C.
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Shimotsuma, Y.
0664279b-def2-41d4-a5ec-207ce02013a7
Sakakura, M.
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Miura, K.
a7149211-8d33-4678-8aac-6ff05bf2ba5d
Qiu, J.
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Kazansky, P.G.
a5d123ec-8ea8-408c-8963-4a6d921fd76c
Beresna, Martynas
a6dc062e-93c6-46a5-aeb3-8de332cdec7b
Corbari, C.
273904e8-5f90-4110-bc17-3d3f2c27d461
Shimotsuma, Y.
0664279b-def2-41d4-a5ec-207ce02013a7
Sakakura, M.
3bb15bbd-d590-4cba-ab5a-862dc7acd054
Miura, K.
a7149211-8d33-4678-8aac-6ff05bf2ba5d
Qiu, J.
45a8b2f4-9b82-447c-8bcf-7c01238ab774

Kazansky, P.G., Beresna, Martynas, Corbari, C., Shimotsuma, Y., Sakakura, M., Miura, K. and Qiu, J. (2010) Extraordinary modifications and structures in glass produced by ultrafast laser writing. 3rd International Congress on Ceramics, Osaka, Japan. 14 - 18 Nov 2010.

Record type: Conference or Workshop Item (Paper)

Abstract

Femtosecond laser direct writing offers unique potential for realizing photonic devices in the bulk of variety transparent materials including glasses and crystals. Investigation of extraordinary anisotropic modifications produced by femtosecond laser irradiation in glass and related phenomena is important for elucidating the mechanisms of light-matter interaction and device fabrication with unique features, such as space variant birefringence. Polarization grating is one example of such devices with can act as a beam splitter for circular polarized light. Moreover circularly polarized photons carry spin-angular momentum, and an encounter with a gradient of refractive index leads to spin-orbital momentum coupling. We demonstrate theoretically and experimentally that due to this effect the circularly polarized light impinging on the sphere will produce beam with orbital angular momentum ±2. The method is applied to generate array of optical vortexes on a small scale using micro-spheres produced by femtosecond laser in silica glass. Furthermore a new phenomenon of ultrafast light blade, representing itself the first evidence of anisotropic sensitivity of glass due to hidden asymmetry of ultrafast laser beam has been recently discovered. This phenomenon enables polarization control of ultrafast laser writing using pulses with tilted intensity front. We anticipate that the observed extraordinary anisotropic modifications in glass and related phenomena will open new opportunities in laser material processing, fabrication of unique photonic structures and controlling of intense light propagation.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: 14 November 2010
Venue - Dates: 3rd International Congress on Ceramics, Osaka, Japan, 2010-11-14 - 2010-11-18
Organisations: Optoelectronics Research Centre

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 193379
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/193379
PURE UUID: 9d4c52ac-3b80-4372-bdb1-d5acb6d04c3f

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 12 Aug 2011 08:30
Last modified: 06 Feb 2023 18:08

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Contributors

Author: P.G. Kazansky
Author: Martynas Beresna
Author: C. Corbari
Author: Y. Shimotsuma
Author: M. Sakakura
Author: K. Miura
Author: J. Qiu

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