TY - GEN

T1 - Highly precise and flexible manufacturing of integrated optical structures in fused silica using selective laser etching

AU - Günther, A.

AU - Ramadas, S. C.B.

AU - Zheng, L.

AU - Kowalsky, W.

AU - Roth, B.

N1 - Funding Information: This work was funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, German Research Foundation) under Germany’s Excellence Strategy within the Cluster of Excellence PhoenixD (EXC 2122, Project ID 390833453).

PY - 2023/8/7

Y1 - 2023/8/7

N2 - Selective laser etching (SLE) enables highly precise 3-dimensional structuring of glasses with a resolution as low a few µm. Two main process steps are necessary for this technique. First, the previously created design is written inside the glass by using fs-laser radiation. Subsequently, the glass is placed in acid or a lye, to etch the laser-modified area. Hereby, the required substance for the post-processing step depends on the used glass. In our work, we investigated the structuring of fused silica with subsequent etching with KOH in detail. We studied the influence of different writing parameters such as laser power, repetition rate, polarization, stage movement speed and hatching distance towards an optimized surface roughness which is crucial for optical applications. The technology is not limited to the structuring of flat glass substrates, but applicable to fibers, waveguides or more complex 3D structures as well. Also hollow-core fibers have been processed to create an inlet and outlet for fluids and standard glass fibers were etched to realize free access to the fiber core, respectively. Especially the latter process enables a wide field of further applications if e.g. metal organic frameworks will be applied for sensing purposes or further optical structures printed on their surface by using two-photon polymerization processes.

AB - Selective laser etching (SLE) enables highly precise 3-dimensional structuring of glasses with a resolution as low a few µm. Two main process steps are necessary for this technique. First, the previously created design is written inside the glass by using fs-laser radiation. Subsequently, the glass is placed in acid or a lye, to etch the laser-modified area. Hereby, the required substance for the post-processing step depends on the used glass. In our work, we investigated the structuring of fused silica with subsequent etching with KOH in detail. We studied the influence of different writing parameters such as laser power, repetition rate, polarization, stage movement speed and hatching distance towards an optimized surface roughness which is crucial for optical applications. The technology is not limited to the structuring of flat glass substrates, but applicable to fibers, waveguides or more complex 3D structures as well. Also hollow-core fibers have been processed to create an inlet and outlet for fluids and standard glass fibers were etched to realize free access to the fiber core, respectively. Especially the latter process enables a wide field of further applications if e.g. metal organic frameworks will be applied for sensing purposes or further optical structures printed on their surface by using two-photon polymerization processes.

KW - glass fibers

KW - optical manufacturing

KW - optical sensing

KW - selective laser etching

KW - subtractive manufacturing

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85173600789&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1117/12.2675807

DO - 10.1117/12.2675807

M3 - Conference contribution

AN - SCOPUS:85173600789

T3 - Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering

BT - Digital Optical Technologies 2023

A2 - Kress, Bernard C.

A2 - Czarske, Jurgen W.

PB - SPIE

T2 - SPIE Digital Optical Technologies

Y2 - 26 June 2023 through 30 June 2023

ER -