Large-mode-area infrared guiding in ultrafast laser written waveguides in Sulfur-based chalcogenide glasses

Ciro d'Amico (1) , Guanghua Cheng (1, 2) , Cyril Mauclair (1) , Johann Troles (3) , Laurent Calvez (3) , Virginie Nazabal (3) , Celine Caillaud (3) , Guillermo Martin (4) , Brahim Arezki (4) , Etienne Lecoarer (4) , Pierre Kern (4) , Razvan Stoian (1)

1 LHC - Laboratoire Hubert Curien [Saint Etienne]
2 XIOPM - State Key Laboratory of Transient Optics and Photonics
3 ISCR - Institut des Sciences Chimiques de Rennes
4 IPAG - Institut de Planétologie et d'Astrophysique de Grenoble

Current demands in astrophotonics impose advancing optical functions in infrared domains within embedded refractive index designs. We demonstrate concepts for large-mode-area guiding in ultrafast laser photowritten waveguides in bulk Sulfur-based chalcogenide glasses. If positive index contrasts are weak in As2S3, Ge doping increases the matrix rigidity and allows for high contrast (10−3) positive refractive index changes. Guiding with variable mode diameter and large-mode-area light transport is demonstrated up to 10μm spectral domain using transverse slit-shaped and evanescently-coupled multicore traces.

Keywords: 3D photonics; refractive index changes; chalcogenide glass; ultrafast laser fabrication

Domains: Engineering Sciences [physics]; Optics / Photonic

Ciro d'Amico, Guanghua Cheng, Cyril Mauclair, Johann Troles, Laurent Calvez, et al.. Large-mode-area infrared guiding in ultrafast laser written waveguides in Sulfur-based chalcogenide glasses. Optics Express, 2014, 22, pp.13091. ⟨10.1364/OE.22.013091⟩. ⟨ujm-00997831⟩