Junji Nishii

Femtosecond laser-assisted three-dimensional microfabrication in silica

We demonstrate direct three-dimensional (3-D) microfabrication inside a volume of silica glass. The whole fabrication process was carried out in two steps:(i) writing of the preprogrammed 3-D pattern inside silica glass by focused femtosecond (fs) laser pulses and (ii) etching of the written structure in a 5% aqueous solution of HF acid. This technique allows fabrication of 3-D channels as small as 10mum in diameter inside the volume with any angle of interconnection and a high aspect ratio (10mum -diameter channels in a 100mum -thick silica slab).

Three-dimensional hole drilling of silica glass from the rear surface with femtosecond laser pulses

By moving silica glass in a preprogrammed structure, we directly produced three-dimensional holes with femtosecond laser pulses in single step. When distilled water was introduced into a hole drilled from the rear surface of the glass, the effects of blocking and redeposition of ablated material were greatly reduced and the aspect ratio of the depth of the hole was increased. Straight holes of 4-mu;m diameter were more than 200 microm deep. Three-dimensional channels can be micromachined inside transparent materials by use of this method, as we have demonstrated by drilling a square-wave-shaped hole inside silica glass.

In situ observation of photoinduced refractive-index changes in filaments formed in glasses by femtosecond laser pulses

We investigated the relationship between the formation of filaments and local refractive-index changes induced by femtosecond laser pulses in silica glass. In situ observation revealed that the location of a filament coincided with that of the refractive-index change. Observation also showed that the region of refractive-index change was elongated toward the upstream direction of the laser pulses with increasing exposure time. The region of refractive-index change was several hundred micrometers long, and its diameter was smaller than 2 mum. The refractive-index change was confirmed by two of three different methods to be as large as 0.8 x 10(-2).

Dependence of fringe spacing on the grating separation in a long-period fiber grating pair

The spectral spacing of the interference fringes formed by a pair of long-period fiber gratings was investigated. The variation of the fringe spacing was measured while the separation between the gratings was changed from 22 to 500 mm. When the grating separation was much longer than the length of the individual grating, the inverse of the fringe spacing became linearly proportional to the grating separation and to the differential effective group index of the fiber. In the third stop band of the grating pair, made along a dispersion-shifted fiber centered at 1.55 microm, the differential effective group index was calculated to be approximately 6.4 x 10(-3), which is approximately twice the differential effective index of the fiber. The discrepancy between the two indices was observed to decrease with the band order, a phenomenon that is explained by the first-order dispersion of the fiber. The measured interference fringes were not regularly spaced in the frequency domain, but regular spacing is required in wavelength-division multiplexing communication systems. Analysis of the second-order dispersion of the fiber and the grating-induced nonlinear phase shift within grating regions as the factors that induce chirping on the fringe spacing is presented.

Arbitrary-lattice photonic crystals created by multiphoton microfabrication

We used voxels of an intensely modified refractive index generated by multiphoton absorption at the focus of femtosecond laser pulses in Ge-doped silica as photonic atoms to build photonic lattices. The voxels were spatially organized in the same way as atoms arrayed in actual crystals, and a Bragg-like diffraction from the photonic atoms was evidenced by a photonic bandgap (PBG) effect. Postfabrication annealing was found to be essential for reducing random scattering and therefore enhancing PBG. This technique has an intrinsic capability of individually addressing single atoms. Therefore the introduction of defect structures was much facilitated, making the technique quite appealing for photonic research and applications.

Wavelength division with three-dimensional couplers fabricated by filamentation of femtosecond laser pulses

Refractive-index changes can be induced by filamentation of 800-nm, 1-kHz femtosecond laser pulses in silica glass. Two-dimensional translation of a 40-microm-long filament leads to the formation of a curved waveguide because of bending by the previously induced refractive-index change. The fabrication of 2-mm directional couplers to split the coupled beam into 1:1 at a wavelength of 632.8 nm is demonstrated. The realization of three-dimensional directional couplers and wavelength division in the output from the couplers is also demonstrated.

Recent advances and trends in chalcogenide glass fiber technology : a review

Abstract Sulfide, selenide and telluride glass fibers were prepared for infrared optical applications. A new crucible drawing method was developed for the drawing of fibers with glass cladding. The extrinsic losses caused by some oxide impurities were suppressed by the purification of raw elements. The transmission loss and mechanical strength, i.e., bending and tensile, of each fiber were investigated before and after the heat treatment under humid conditions. The fibers obtained were used for the power delivery of CO2 laser (10.6 μm) and CO laser (5.4 μm). The antireflection coating onto fiber ends and cooling of fiber with gas or water were examined for the improvement of power transmission efficiency. A fiber cable having ZnSe lens at the output end was prepared for medical and other applications. Temperature monitoring, thermal imaging and gas sensing were also tried using the fibers.

Symmetric waveguides in poly(methyl methacrylate) fabricated by femtosecond laser pulses

We report on the fabrication of symmetric waveguides in bulk poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) by femtosecond laser pulses. A waveguide with a circular transverse profile can be obtained by using a slit beam shaping method. The refractive index in the core increases by up to 4.6 x 10(-4) and the waveguide works as single-mode waveguide at a wavelength of 632.8 nm. This writing technique is applied to the fabrication of a directional coupler to split a coupled beam with a 1:1 splitting ratio at 632.8 nm.

Welding of Transparent Materials Using Femtosecond Laser Pulses

We report on laser welding between transparent materials without the insertion of intermediate layers such as glue by use of near-infrared femtosecond laser pulses. When femtosecond laser pulses are focused at the interface of transparent materials, the material around the focal point is melted and resolidified because of the temperature increases due to the localized nonlinear absorption of optical pulse energy. We experimentally succeeded in laser welding between two pieces of silica glass without the insertion of an intermediate layer by femtosecond laser pulses. This technique has a possible application to the joining of semiconductors such as silicon crystals.

Space-selective laser joining of dissimilar transparent materials using femtosecond laser pulses

We report on the joining of dissimilar transparent materials based on localized melting and resolidification of the materials only around the focal volume due to nonlinear absorption of focused femtosecond laser pulses. We demonstrate the joining of borosilicate glass and fused silica, whose coefficients of thermal expansion are different. The joint strength and the transmittance through joint volume were investigated by varying the translation velocity of the sample and the pulse energy of the irradiated laser pulses.