Femtosecond laser micromachining of waveguides in silicone-based hydrogel polymers.
By tightly focusing 27 fs laser pulses from a Ti:sapphire oscillator with 1.3 nJ pulse energy at 93 MHz repetition rate, we are able to fabricate optical waveguides inside hydrogel polymers containing approximately 36% water by weight. A tapered lensed fiber is used to couple laser light at a wavelength of 632.8 nm into these waveguides within a water environment. Strong waveguiding is observed due to large refractive index changes. A large waveguide propagation loss is found, and we show that this is caused by surface roughness which can be reduced by optimizing the waveguides.
Ding
Li
L
The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
Blackwell
Richard I
RI
Künzler
Jay F
JF
Knox
Wayne H
WH