Reducing laser induced stress to enable tightly packed structures in glass fabricated with selective laser etching

authored by: A. Günther, N. Jacob, W. Kowalsky, B. Roth
Abstract: Selective laser etching (SLE) is a promising subtractive manufacturing technology enabling highly precise 3-dimensional structuring to create integrated optical structures in glass. The process itself is based on two main steps. First, the designed structure is transferred into the glass by a fs-pulsed laser. Subsequently, the glass is placed in a corresponding lye or acid, respectively, to remove the structured areas from the bulk glass. Hereby, the choice of the liquid used of for etching step depends on the glass material to be structured. Previous studies showed that the surface quality which can be achieved with SLE is sufficient for optical applications if the right process parameters are chosen. The process itself induces stress inside the material which limits the distance between single structures inside the glass. In this work, we investigated the laser parameters affecting the applied stress as well as the effect of a subsequent annealing step before and after etching. The possibility to minimize the distance between multiple structures enables the fabrication of highly packed photonic and opto-fluidic chips, i.e. for sensing application.
Organisation(s): PhoenixD: Photonics, Optics, and Engineering - Innovation Across Disciplines
Hannover Centre for Optical Technologies (HOT)
External Organisation(s): Technische Universität Braunschweig
Type: Conference contribution
No. of pages: 5
Publication date: 19.03.2025
Publication status: Published
Peer reviewed: Yes
ASJC Scopus subject areas: Electronic, Optical and Magnetic Materials, Condensed Matter Physics, Computer Science Applications, Applied Mathematics, Electrical and Electronic Engineering
Electronic version(s): https://doi.org/10.1117/12.3042947 (Access: Closed)