AUTHOR=Castillo Gabriel R. , Burshtein Cecilia , Uahengo Gottlieb , Penilla Elías H. , Esqueda-Barrón Yasmín , Martinez-Gil M. , de la Cruz Wencel , Garay Javier E. , Camacho-López Santiago 

TITLE=Thermally Resilient Planar Waveguides in Novel nc-YSZ Transparent Ceramic by fs Laser Pulses

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Physics

VOLUME=Volume 9 - 2021

YEAR=2021

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/physics/articles/10.3389/fphy.2021.767855

DOI=10.3389/fphy.2021.767855

ISSN=2296-424X

ABSTRACT=We report on thermally resilient planar waveguide fabricated on nc-YSZ by direct fs-laser inscription in transparent nc-yttria stabilized zirconia (nc-YSZ) polycrystalline ceramics. The waveguide consisted of rectangular sections (4.5×2 mm2) on the surface of the sample. Optical characterization at 633 and 810 nm was performed. We estimate a laser-induced refractive index contrast of 10^-4. Post-fabrication thermal annealing treatments at 750 °C for 24 hours were carried out to test the resilience of the waveguide and to further reduce the waveguide losses. Our results suggest a promising potential use of nc-YSZ in harsh and high temperature demanding photonic environments.