Fabrication of photonic devices in nanostructured glasses by femtosecond laser pulses

Focused femtosecond laser pulses have been used to modify the optical properties of glass doped with CdSxSe1-x nanocrystals. Large positive refractive index changes have been observed and exploited for the fabrication of photonic devices. In particular, we report on highly confining optical waveguides and single and multi-layer volume diffraction gratings.