Birefringent Fresnel zone plates in silica fabricated by femtosecond laser machining

We demonstrate maskless, single-step fabrication of strongly birefringent Fresnel zone plates by focusing of femtosecond laser pulses deep within silica substrates. The process allows us to produce alternate zone rings directly by inducing a local refractive-index modification of the order of n~10(-...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inOptics letters Vol. 27; no. 24; p. 2200
Main Authors Bricchi, Erica, Mills, John D, Kazansky, Peter G, Klappauf, Bruce G, Baumberg, Jeremy J
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States 15.12.2002
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Summary:We demonstrate maskless, single-step fabrication of strongly birefringent Fresnel zone plates by focusing of femtosecond laser pulses deep within silica substrates. The process allows us to produce alternate zone rings directly by inducing a local refractive-index modification of the order of n~10(-2) . The embedded zone plates shown in this Letter exhibit efficiencies that vary by as much as a factor of ~6 for orthogonal polarizations. Focal lengths of primary and secondary foci are shown to compare well with theory.
ISSN:0146-9592
DOI:10.1364/OL.27.002200