Photosensitised PDMS for femtosecond laser writing

Abstract

This work demonstrates a new photosensitive glassy material in the form of poly-di-methyl-siloxane (PDMS) loaded with novel Ge-derivatives. A femtosecond laser is used to write directly into the bulk of pristine and Ge-modified PDMS. Raman spectroscopy is used to study the origin of the stable refractive index (RI) change induced by fs laser exposure. Multimode waveguides, as well as a highly tunable diffraction gratings, were written into the bulk of the new material, Ge-PDMS, in order to demonstrate the inclusion of photonics structures embedded inside. Novel photonics functionality may now be incorporated into PDMS, which is a material widely used in the optics industry and for lab-on-chip application (LOC).