Femtosecond laser micromachining: Applications in photonic device fabrication and laser joining

When femtosecond laser pulses are tightly focused into a transparent material, the intensity in the focal volume is high enough to induce permanent structural modifications. Using these permanent structural modifications, one can micromachine structures inside the bulk of a transparent material in three-dimensions. I present the fabrication of photonic devices in transparent materials, including waveguides, couplers, diffractive lenses, and microfluidic channels in silica glass and PMMA. Applications of femtosecond laser micromachining include the joining of glass substrates by localized melting and resolidification.