Fabrication of femtosecond laser-induced crystals in lithium nioboSilicate 30: the effects of polarization angle on orientation and growth rate.

Optical and Electron microscope inspections reveal a dependence of light polarization on the growth of crystals in glass using a femtosecond laser. Critical for these experiments is an algorithm based on a half-wave plate that insured constant laser intensity for varying polarization directions. Laser-induced crystallization is an effective way of fabricating crystals in glass and other transparent materials owing to the fact that the process is clean, precise and contactless. The crystals obtained are of interest because of their potential use in optical data transmission. The issue tackled in this paper was that of maintaining consistent power when the polarization angle was changed. For this work, LiNbO3 crystals were fabricated in Lithium NioboSilicate glass with 30 mol percentage of silicon dioxide in the glass. Cao et al observed that at moderate pulse energies, (0.5-0.9μJ/ pulse, 300kHz) textured nanocrystals are obtained with their polar axis perpendicular to the writing laser polarization direction[1].
CIS codes: 130.3730, 130.5296

References:
[1] J. Cao, M. Lancry, F. Brisset, L. Mazerolles, R. Saint-Martin, and B. Poumellec, Crystal Growth & Design 2019 19 (4), 2189-2205