Direct laser writing of a new type of waveguides in silver containing glasses

Direct laser writing in glasses is a growing field of research in photonics since it provides a robust and efficient way to directly address 3D material structuring. Generally, direct laser writing in glasses induces physical modifications such as refractive index changes that have been classified under three different types (Type I, II & III). In a silver-containing zinc phosphate glass, direct laser writing additionally proceeds via the formation of silver clusters at the periphery of the interaction voxel. In this paper, we introduce a novel type of refractive index modification based on the creation of the photo-induced silver clusters allowing the inscription of a new type of optical waveguides. Various waveguides as well as a 50–50 beam splitter were written inside bulk glasses and characterized. The waveguiding properties observed in the bulk of such silver-containing glass samples were further transposed to ribbon shaped fibers made of the same material. Our results pave the way for the fabrication of 3D integrated circuits and fiber sensors with original fluorescent, nonlinear optical and plasmonic properties. The universality of these new findings should further extend in any silver-containing glasses that show similar laser-induced behavior in terms of silver cluster production.