Femtosecond laser fabrication of waveguides in Rhodamine B-doped GPTS/TEOS-derived organic/silica monolithic xerogel

• Femtosecond-laser micromachining on Rhodamine B-doped GPTS/TEOS-derived organic/silica monolithic xerogels.
• Dye concentration influence on the samples optical properties.
• Effect of laser scan speed and pulse energy on the waveguide quality.
• Propagation losses in the single mode waveguides were measured.

This paper reports on the fabrication and characterization of waveguides inside of a dye doped-organic/inorganic bulk material using femtosecond laser microfabrication. Rhodamine B-doped GPTS/TEOS-derived organic/silica monolithic xerogels with excellent optical quality were prepared by sol–gel method. The influence of the dye concentration on the samples optical properties was also investigated in order to choose the proper one to be used for producing the waveguides. After investigation of parameters to fabrication in xerogels, such as, scan speed effects and pulse energy, we produced waveguides in bulks doped with 0.5 mmol/L of Rhodamine B. Propagation losses in the single mode waveguides, at 632.8 nm wavelength, were obtained.