Trimming laser-written waveguides through overwriting

Femtosecond laser direct writing is widely used to create waveguide circuits for optical processing in applications including communications, astrophotonics, simulation and quantum information processing. The properties of these waveguide circuits can be sensitive to the fabrication conditions, meaning that noticeable variability can be present in nominally identical manufactured components. One potential solution to this problem is the use of device trimming, whereby additional laser fabrication is applied to optimise the optical properties of a device based upon measurement feedback. We show how this approach can be used in the manufacture of directional couplers by overwriting the laser-written structure to alter the coupling ratios. Published by The Optical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.