Manufacturing of Er:ZBLAN ridge waveguides by pulsed laser deposition and ultrafast laser micromachining for green integrated lasers

Laser radiation is used both for the deposition of the laser active thin films and for the microstructuring to define wave guiding structures for the fabrication of waveguide lasers. Thin films of Er:ZBLAN (a fluoride glass consisting of ZrF4, BaF2, LaF3, AlF3, NaF, ErF3) for green up-conversion lasers (545 nm) are produced by pulsed laser deposition using ArF excimer laser radiation (wavelength 193 nm). Manufacturing of the laser active waveguides by microstructuring is done using fs-laser ablation of the deposited films. The structural and optical properties of the films and the damping losses of the structured waveguides are determined in view of the design and the fabrication of compact and efficient diode pumped waveguide lasers. The resulting waveguides are polished, provided with resonator mirrors, pumped using diode lasers and characterized.