CIOP   05384
CENTRO DE INVESTIGACIONES OPTICAS
Unidad Ejecutora - UE
congresos y reuniones científicas
Título:
Optical spectroscopy in channel waveguides made in Nd:YAG crystals by femtosecond laser writing
Autor/es:
G.A. TORCHIA, C. MÉNDEZ, L. ROSO AND J.O. TOCHO
Lugar:
Segovia, España
Reunión:
Conferencia; 16th International Conference on Dynamical Processes in Excited States of Solids; 2007
Resumen:
In this work we present optical characterization of channel waveguides fabricated by means of femtosecond laser writing on Nd:YAG substrates. These guiding structures show a refractive index increment of about 1x10-3 which allows TE propagation. By pumping with a cw solid state laser at 532 nm reaching the 2G9/2 and 4G7/2 manifolds of Nd3+ ions, we have explored the emission band corresponding to     4F 3/2 ->4I 9/2 optical transitions (peaked at 890 nm). From data, we have found that emission showed similar characteristic for the waveguide and bulk. On the other hand, the lifetime corresponding to the 4F 3/2  metaestable level was determined to be 240 ms for bulk and waveguide. Summarizing, we have made suitable channel waveguides in Nd:YAG crystals, by fs interaction, with similar spectroscopic properties to those of the bulk, a fact that boosters the photonics application of these devices. For the first time to our knowledge, a direct index increment waveguide made by interaction with ultra-short intense pulses in YAG crystals has been performed. This fabrication procedure can be an efficient tool to make several optical circuits in active materials by means of the only one step, fast and low cost of processing.