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.
The Institute of Optics, University of Rochester, Rochester, New York 14627, USA.
Li
L
Ding
Richard I
RI
Blackwell
Jay F
JF
Künzler
Wayne H
WH
Knox