Laser material processing laboratory develops valuable experimental protocols for managing glass based photonic structures. Among the others we evidence the smoothing of planar waveguide surface in order to reduce scattering losses and the fabrication of transparent glass ceramic waveguides.

Instrumentation:

Laser CO2 TEA S50 made by BCC LLC Bulgaria

Figure 1: TEA CO2 laser system for laser material processing

Technical Data:

Gas mixture	CO2 33%, He 33%, N2 33%
Energy per pulse	0,8 Joule in Multimode, 150 mJ TEM00
Pulse length	typically 380 nsec = 2 MW for pulse
Repetition rate	from 1 Hz to 100 Hz
Beam dimension	15mm x 15mm in multimode 8 mm in TEM00
Divergence	3,5 mrad in Multimode 1,3 mrad in TEM00
Time for ready	10 - 15 min
Max energy consumption	4KW

Figure 2: Optical bench for CO2 laser material processing (a) beam output (b) beam collimator (c) lens (d) sample holder (e) power meter head S314C (f) power meter electronic PM100D

Lens:

N.2 ZnSe lens plano-convex  OPHIR - LP 38-127-3.0	Diameter: 38.1 mm (1.5"), Focal length: 127.0 mm (5.0"), Edge thickness: 3.0 mm  Standard coating (transparent, A < 0,2%)
N.2 ZnSe Cylindrical Lens  ULO Optics - 15ZCP100	Diameter: 38.0 mm, Focal length: 100.0 mm, Edge thickness: 3.0 mm  Coating AR/AR

Power meter:

• Thorlabs Optical Power Meter PM100D
• With Thermal Sensors for General Applications - S314C and S302C
  

	S314C	S302C
Wavelength Range	0.25 - 11 µm	0.19 - 25 µm
Power Range	10 mW - 40 W	100 µW - 2 W
Detector Type	Thermal Surface Absorber	Stabilized Thermal Absorber
Resolution	1 mW	1 µW

Figure 3: Power meter PM100D

Tapered fiber fabrication setup

Tapered fiber is one of the more frequently used methods to inject the light in a microresonators. The typical example is the add-drop configuration used for spherical microresonators. Hence is crucial to develop the skill in the artisanal fabrication of the tapers. Using the home-made setup shown in Figure 4 tapered fibers with a 1 µm waist can be prepared.

Figure 4: Tapered fiber fabrication setup