Waveguiding and nonlinear optical properties of three-dimensional waveguides in LiTaO<inf>3</inf> written by high-repetition rate ultrafast laser

Abstract

We report the fabrication of waveguides in lithium tantalate using a 250 kHz high-repetition rate ultrafast laser at 771 nm and the characterization of the resulting laser induced structure with second harmonic microscopy. Waveguides operating at the 1.5 μm telecommunication wavelength were formed above and below the focal volume using pulse energies ranging from 100 to 1.6 J and translation speeds from 100 μms to 5 mms. The second harmonic microscopy reveals no degradation of the electro-optic coefficient in the guiding region above the focal volume. © 2008 American Institute of Physics