An important challenge in the field of three-dimensional ultrafast laser processing is to achieve permanent modifications in the bulk of silicon and narrow-gap materials. Recent attempts by increasing the energy of infrared ultrashort pulses have simply failed. Here, we establish that it is because focusing with a maximum numerical aperture of about 1.5 with conventional schemes does not allow overcoming strong nonlinear and plasma effects in the pre-focal region. We circumvent this limitation by exploiting solid-immersion focusing, in analogy to techniques applied in advanced microscopy and lithography. By creating the conditions for an interaction with an extreme numerical aperture near 3 in a perfect spherical sample, repeatable femtosecond optical breakdown and controllable refractive index modifications are achieved inside silicon. This opens the door to the direct writing of three-dimensional monolithic devices for silicon photonics. It also provides perspectives for new strong-field physics and warm-dense-matter plasma experiments.

Direct three-dimensional (3D) laser writing of waveguides is highly advanced in a wide range of bandgap materials, but has no equivalent in silicon so far. We show that nanosecond laser single-pass irradiation is capable of producing channel micro-modifications deep into crystalline silicon. With an appropriate shot overlap, a relative change of the refractive index exceeding 10^-3 is obtained without apparent nonuniformity at the micrometer scale. Despite the remaining challenge of propagation losses, we show that the created structures form, to the best of our knowledge, the first laser-written waveguides in the bulk of monolithic silicon samples. This paves the way toward the capability of producing 3D architectures for the rapidly growing field of silicon photonics.

International audienceAlthough tightly focused intense ultrashort laser pulses are used in many applications from nano-processing to warm dense matter physics, their nonparaxial propagation implies the use of numerical simulations with vectorial wave equations or exact Maxwell solvers that have serious limitations and thus have hindered progress in this important field up to now. Here we present an elegant and robust solution that allows one to map the problem on one that can be addressed by simple scalar wave equations. The solution is based on a transformation optics approach and its validity is demonstrated in both the linear and the nonlinear regime. Our solution allows accessing challenging problems of extreme spatiotemporal localization of high power laser radiation that remain almost unexplored theoretically until now

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International audienceCarrier kinetics in the density range of N = 10(17) - 10(20) cm(-3) is investigated inside the bulk of crystalline silicon. Most conventional experimental techniques used to study carrier mobility are indirect and lack sensitivity because of charging effects and recombination on the surface. An all optical technique is used to overcome these obstacles. By focusing 1.3-mu m femtosecond laser pulses in the volume, we inject an initial free-carrier population by two-photon absorption. Then, we use pump-and-probe infrared microscopy as a tool to obtain simultaneous measurements of the carrier diffusion and recombination dynamics in a microscale region deep inside the material. The rate equation model is used to simulate our experimental results. We report a constant ambipolar diffusion coefficient D-a of 2.5 cm(2) s(-1) and an effective carrier lifetime tau(eff) of 2.5 ns at room temperature. A discussion on our findings at these high-injection levels is presented. (C) 2016 AIP Publishing LLC

We report on a functional experimental design for Bessel beam generation capable of handling high-energy ultrashort pulses (up to 1.2 mJ per pulse of 50 fs duration). This allows us to deliver intensities exceeding the breakdown threshold for air or any dielectric along controlled micro-filaments with lengths exceeding 4 mm. It represents an unprecedented upscaling in comparison to recent femtosecond Bessel beam micromachining experiments. We produce void microchannels through glass substrates to demonstrate that aspect ratios exceeding 1200∶1 can be achieved by using single high-intensity pulses. This demonstration must lead to new methodologies for deep-drilling and high-speed cutting applications.

The laser-induced damage growth phenomenon is experimentally studied for damage sites on the exit surface of fused silica. The sites are irradiated by nanosecond laser pulses at 1064 and 355 nm separately and also simultaneously. The results in the single wavelength configurations are expressed in terms of the probability of growth and growth coefficient. For growing sites, a fluence correction expression is proposed in order to take into account the millimetric Gaussian profile of the beams. The use of this expression is necessary to obtain results that are consistent with the ones obtained in the existing literature with large homogeneous beams. In the multiple wavelengths configuration, the results are expressed as a function of the laser fluences at each wavelength and are found to be closely related to the parameters determined in the single wavelength experiments. A coupling between the two wavelengths is quantified, and could originate from the formation and the expansion of a plasma produced both in the center and at the periphery of the damage sites.

Laser-induced permanent modification inside silicon has been recently demonstrated by using tightly focused nanosecond sources at a 1550 nm wavelength. We have developed a quantitative-phase microscope operating in the near-infrared domain to characterize the laser-induced modifications deep into silicon. By varying the number of applied laser pulses and the energy, we observe porous and densified regions in the focal region. The observed changes are associated with refractive index variations |Δn| exceeding 10^-3, enough to envision the laser writing of optical functionalities inside silicon.