Photothermal fabrication of microstructures in transparent low-melting media doped with rare earth ions as a light absorber.

Microstructures were fabricated by a photothermal process in a low-melting organic-inorganic hybrid material of tin silicophosphate doped with Nd3+ ion as a light absorber. The negative refractive index change of the order of 10-3 was photothermally induced inside the low-melting glass with a spatial resolution ranging from 10 to 100 μm using a 514.5 nm emission from an Ar+ laser of less than 30 mW as the excitation source. The volume expansion due to the photogenerated heat at the laser focus is found to be responsible for the photothermally induced negative photorefractive index change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]