Process of production of high efficiency diffractive and refractive optical elements in multicomponent silicate glass by nonlinear photo ionization followed by thermal development.

Abstract

Apparatus, methods and systems for production of high efficiency refractive and diffractive elements by providing a photo-sensitizer fi-ee multicomponent glass, exposing the multi component glass to pulsed laser radiation to produce refractive indexed modulation, and heating the exposed multicomponent silicate glass to produce the high efficiency refractive and diffractive elements. The pulsed laser radiation is infrared femtosecond pulses to ultraviolet nanosecond pulses which provide ionization of glass matrix. The multicomponent glass is a photosensitive glass with high transparency in ultraviolet spectral region, e.g. silicate glass which includes silver, fluorine and bromine and does not contain photosensitizers such as cerium and antimony, PTR glass, cerium free PTR glass and cerium + antimony free PTR glass