title: Femtosecond bulk transparent material processing and recovery.
abstract: Femtosecond lasers have a unique ability of processing bulk transparent materials for various applications such as micromachining, waveguide manufacturing, and photonic bandgap structures, just to name a few. These applications depend on the formation of micron or submicron size features are known to be index modifications to the bulk substrate [2, 11], which were thought to persist indefinitely. However, it has been observed that some of these bulk transparent materials recover or "heal" with time. This "healing" process is studied and quantified using Nomarski Differential Interference Contrast optical microscopy and diffraction efficiency measurements of micro-machined gratings. We find healing to be accelerated in dye doped polymers.
authors.affiliation: Wright-Patterson AFB/Air Force Research Laboratory/Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Logan Optical Design, LLC, Tipp City, OH 45371, USA.
authors.forename: Logan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: DeSautels
authors.forename: Mark G
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Kuzyk
authors.forename: Chrisopher
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Brewer