Waveguides in Ni-doped glass and glass–ceramic written with a 1 kHz femtosecond laser

•We wrote waveguides in Ni doped glass and glass–ceramic by femtosecond laser.•Waveguides can be erased by annealing the glass, but not the glass–ceramic.•Ni nanoparticles were created during the waveguide writing.•Ni had more long luminescence lifetime components in the waveguide than in the glass.

We report waveguides in Ni-doped Li2O–Ga2O3–SiO2 (Ni:LGS) glass and glass–ceramic (GC) fabricated with a femtosecond (fs) laser with repetition rate of 1 kHz. When the glass is annealed to form a GC, the waveguides are erased. However, in the GC the waveguides are not erased by annealing. In Ni:LGS GC a 415 nm absorption band was created by fs laser waveguide writing due to the creation of Ni nanoparticles with an estimated diameter of a few nm. Raman and photoluminescence spectra of the bulk and waveguide structures were indistinguishable; however, fluorescence decay profiles indicated more long lifetime components in the waveguide compared to the bulk.