Strong ion migration in high refractive index contrast waveguides formed by femtosecond laser pulses in phosphate glass

Strong ion migration in shown to enable the production of high refractive index contrast waveguides by fs-laser writing in a commercial (Er,Yb)-doped phosphate based glass. Waveguide writing was performed using a high repetition rate fslaser fibre amplifier operated at 500 kHz and the slit shaping technique. Based on measurements of the NA of waveguides, the positive refractive index change (Δn) of the guiding region has been estimated to be ∼1-2 x10-2. The compositional maps of the waveguides cross-sections performed by X-ray microanalysis evidenced a large increase of the La local concentration in the guiding region up to ~25% (relative to the non-irradiated material). This large enrichment in La was accompanied by the cross migration of K to a neighbouring low refractive index zone. The refractive index of the La-phosphate glass increases linearly with the La2O3 content (Δn per mole fraction increase of La2O3 ≈ 5x10-3) mainly because of the relative mass of the La3+ ions. The density increase without substantial modification of the glass network was confirmed by space-resolved micro-Raman spectroscopy measurements showing minor variations in the (PO2)sym vibration Raman band. These results provide evidence for the feasibility of adapting the glass composition for enabling laser-writing of high refractive index contrast structures via spatially selective modification of the glass composition.

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