Stress induced birefringence tuning in femtosecond laser fabricated waveguides in fused silica

• Type: Article in International Scientific Journal
• Date: 2012

Authors

Luis A Fernandes (Author) Other; Jason R Grenier (Author) Other; Peter R Herman (Author) Other; Stewart S Aitchison (Author) Other; Paulo V S Marques (Author) FCUP

Journal

Title: Optics Express

Vol. 20

Pages: 24103-24114

ISSN: 1094-4087

Publisher: Optical Society of America

Indexing

ISI Web of Knowledge - 80 Citations

Scopus - 95 Citations

Scientific classification

FOS: Natural sciences > Physical sciences

Other information

Authenticus ID: P-002-4CV

DOI: 10.1364/oe.20.024103

Abstract (EN): Femtosecond laser exposure produces form and stress birefringence in glasses, mainly controlled by laser polarization and pulse energy, which leads to challenges in certain applications where polarization mode dispersion or birefringence splitting is critical for the desired responses from optical devices. In this paper, parallel laser modification tracks with different geometries were applied to preferentially stress the laser-written waveguides and explore the possibility of tuning the waveguide birefringence in devices fabricated in bulk fused silica glass. Polarization splitting in Bragg grating waveguides showed the laser modification tracks to controllably add or subtract stress to the pre-existing waveguide birefringence, demonstrating independence from the nanograting induced form birefringence and the contributions from material stress. Stressing bars are shown that offer tunable birefringence in the range from similar to 0 up to 4.35 x 10(-4), possibly enabling great flexibility in designing polarization dependent devices, as well as making polarization independent devices. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America

Language: English

Type (Professor's evaluation): Scientific

No. of pages: 12