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Fabrication of optical waveguides inside transparent silica xerogels containing PbS quantum dots using a femtosecond laser

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Abstract

The fabrication and photoluminescence properties of waveguide structures inside transparent silica xerogels containing PbS quantum dots (QDs) have been investigated. Stable dispersion of water-soluble PbS QDs, which emit in the wavelength region of 1.3 μm, in silica xerogels was conducted by a sol–gel method using 3-aminopropyltrimethoxysilane. It was found that both the photoluminescence intensity and the dispersion stability are highly sensitive to catalysts, reaction temperature and time, and annealing temperature. Continuous and straight waveguide structures with refractive-index change were obtained by choosing appropriate irradiation conditions. The fabricated waveguides led approximately 60% increase in the intensity of the photoluminescence generated from the PbS QDs.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists B (No. 16K18234) from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT), Japan, and by Nippon Sheet Glass Foundation for Materials Science and Engineering, and by the Amada Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Electronics and Materials Science, Faculty of Engineering, Shizuoka University, 3-5-1 Johoku, Naka-ku, Hamamatsu, 432-8561, Japan

    Seisuke Nakashima & Akihiro Ishida

  2. Department of Solid State Materials and Engineering, Yokohama National University, 79-5 Tokiwadai, Hodogaya-ku, Yokohama-shi, Kanagawa, 240-8501, Japan

    Tomoya Tanaka & Kohki Mukai

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  1. Seisuke Nakashima
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  2. Tomoya Tanaka
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Correspondence to Seisuke Nakashima.

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Nakashima, S., Tanaka, T., Ishida, A. et al. Fabrication of optical waveguides inside transparent silica xerogels containing PbS quantum dots using a femtosecond laser. Appl. Phys. A 123, 723 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1349-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00339-017-1349-8

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