Presentations

    Laser-induced microexplosions in transparent materials: microstructuring with nanojoules, at Photonics West 1999 (San Jose, CA), Tuesday, January 26, 1999
    We tightly focus femtosecond laser pulses in the bulk of a transparent material. The high intensity at the focus causes nonlinear absorption of the laser energy, producing a microscopic plasma and damaging the material. The tight external focusing allows high intensity to be achieved with low energy, minimizing the effects of self-focusing. We report the thresholds for breakdown and critical self-focusing in fused silica using 110-fs pulses at both 400-nm and 800-nm wavelength. We find that permanent damage can be produced with only 10 nJ (25 nJ) for 400-nm (800-nm) pulses, and that the... Read more about Laser-induced microexplosions in transparent materials: microstructuring with nanojoules
    Micromachining optical waveguides using a femtosecond laser oscillator, at Optical Society of America Annual Meeting (Providence, RI), Wednesday, October 25, 2000:
    By tightly focusing femtosecond laser pulses, we achieve optical breakdown in a transparent material using only nanojoules of laser energy. Localized structural changes are produced in the focal volume and used for bulk micromachining. Using this technique, we fabricate single-mode optical waveguides and other photonics devices inside bulk glass.
    Micromachining transparent materials using a femtosecond laser oscillator, at Photonics West (San Jose, CA), Tuesday, January 23, 2001:
    The use of femtosecond laser pulses for high-precision micromachining of the surface and bulk of transparent materials has received much attention in recent years. Several groups have demonstrated the direct writing of waveguides and other photonic devices inside bulk glass using femtosecond lasers. Many of the capabilities demonstrated in these experiments offer solutions to problems the telecommunications industry is currently facing. A major obstacle, however, for industrial adoption of the techniques that have been developed is the cost and complexity of the amplified femtosecond laser... Read more about Micromachining transparent materials using a femtosecond laser oscillator