Weak-guidance-theory review of dispersion and birefringence management by laser inscription
✍ Scribed by A.M. Zheltikov; D.T. Reid
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 2008
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 334 KB
- Volume
- 5
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1612-2011
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✦ Synopsis
A brief review of laser inscription of micro- and nanophotonic structures in transparent materials is provided in terms of a compact and convenient formalism based on the theory of weak optical waveguides. We derive physically instructive approximate expressions allowing propagation constants of laser-inscribed micro- and nanowaveguides to be calculated as functions of the transverse waveguide size, refractive index step, and dielectric properties of the host material. Based on this analysis, we demonstrate that dispersion engineering capabilities of laser micromachining techniques are limited by the smallness of the refractive index step typical of laser-inscribed structures. However, a laser inscription of waveguides in pre-formed micro- and nanostructures suggests a variety of interesting options for a fine dispersion and birefringence tuning of small-size waveguides and photonic wires.