Maxim Vetchinnikov
Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, Russia
Biography
Abstract
Femtosecond laser processing of oxide glasses is a perspective way for the development of novel glass-based optical materials. Oxide glasses doped with metal or semiconductor nanoparticles are expected to be especially promising because their unique properties depending on nanoparticle size may be combined with their micromodification by ultrafast laser beam fabricating various 3D structures with controlled optical properties. Laser-irradiated areas of predetermined geometry containing metal or semiconductor nanoparticles in a single piece of glass pave the way to improve a lot of photonic devices, such as ultrafast optical switches, polarization converters, active channel waveguides and high-density optical memory. Here, we report about one-step space-selective precipitation of silver or cadmium sulphide nanoparticles by femtosecond laser pulses inside silicate and phosphate glasses. We demonstrate that femtosecond laser irradiation of such glasses induces ring-shaped coloured microdomains which are prone to luminescence, absorption and homogeneous birefringence. Structure, chemical composition and sizes of nanoparticles formed in laser-written domains were examined by Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. Variation of dopant concentration and laser writing conditions (i.e. pulse repetition rate, number of pulses, pulse duration and energy) are established to provide an opportunity to control optical and luminescent properties of the laser-induced domains. Scenario of femtosecond laser-induced precipitation of silver and cadmium sulphide nanoparticles inside oxide glasses was proposed.