Femtosecond laser writing of the depressed cladding buried channel waveguides in ZnS crystal

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the first femtosecond laser writing of buried channel waveguides in monocrystalline ZnS, including a single-mode Cr:ZnS waveguide laser with notable power and efficiency, enabling spectral broadening applications.

Contribution

It introduces the first direct femtosecond laser-writing technique for buried waveguides in ZnS and reports a novel single-mode Cr:ZnS waveguide laser with high power and efficiency.

Findings

Achieved femtosecond laser writing of buried waveguides in ZnS

Developed a Cr:ZnS waveguide laser with 150 mW power at 2272 nm

Observed spectral broadening under femtosecond pumping at 1030 nm

Abstract

We report the first direct femtosecond laser-writing of buried channel waveguides in monocrystalline ZnS. We also report the first single-mode Cr:ZnS depressed cladding buried waveguide laser manufactured by femtosecond laser writing. The laser yields 150 mW average power at 2272 nm wavelength with 11% slope efficiency. A depressed cladding waveguide with propagation loss of 0.62 dB/cm at 1030 nm allowed to obtain spectral broadening under femtosecond-pumping at 1030 nm.