Fabrication of an Optical Waveguide-Mode-Field Compressor in Glass Using a Femtosecond Laser

Resetting directional couplers for high-fidelity quantum photonic integrated chips

In this Letter, we propose a fabrication technique based on femtosecond laser secondary direct writing (FsLSDW) that allows us to statically reset the beam-splitting ratio of directional couplers. By modifying the interaction region with a second inscription, the coupling coefficient of the reconstructed devices can be indeed changed continuously within the range of 0.49-2.1 rad/mm, thus enabling a complete tunability of the reconstructed splitting ratio from zero to full power transfer between the waveguides. This powerful reconstruction capability facilitates the arbitrary reset of an imperfect device, from any initial splitting ratio to the correct one. In the future, such static control method could potentially solve the fabrication error problem in the manufacturing of high-fidelity large-scale integrated photonic quantum chips.

Shear-Assisted Laser Transfer of Metal Nanoparticle Ink to an Elastomer Substrate

Selective laser sintering of metal nanoparticle ink is an attractive technology for the creation of metal layers at the microscale without any vacuum deposition process, yet its application to elastomer substrates has remained a highly challenging task. To address this issue, we introduced the shear-assisted laser transfer of metal nanoparticle ink by utilizing the difference in thermal expansion coefficients between the elastomer and the target metal electrode. The laser was focused and scanned across the absorbing metal nanoparticle ink layer that was in conformal contact with the elastomer with a high thermal expansion coefficient. The resultant shear stress at the interface assists the selective transfer of the sintered metal nanoparticle layer. We expect that the proposed method can be a competent fabrication route for a transparent conductor on elastomer substrates.