GALATEA · Tailoring Material Properties Using Femtosecond Lasers: A New Paradigm for Highly Integrated Micro-/Nano- Scale Systems

Using recent progress in laser technology and in particular in the field of ultra-fast lasers, we are getting close to accomplish the alchemist dream of transforming materials. Compact lasers can generate pulses with ultra-high peak powers in the Tera-Watt or even Peta-Watt ranges. These high-power pulses lead to a radically different laser-matter interaction than the one obtained with conventional lasers. Non-linear multi-photons processes are observed; they open new and exciting opportunities to tailor the matter in its intimate structure with sub-wavelength spatial resolutions and in the three dimensions.This project is aiming at exploring the use of these ultrafast lasers to locally tailor the physical properties of glass materials. More specifically, our objective is to create polymorphs embedded in bulk structures and to demonstrate their use as means to introduce new functionalities in the material.The long-term objective is to develop the scientific understanding and technological know-how to create three-dimensional objects with nanoscale features where optics, fluidics and micromechanical elements as well as active functions are integrated in a single monolithic piece of glass and to do so using a single process.This is a multidisciplinary research that pushes the frontier of our current knowledge of femtosecond laser interaction with glass to demonstrate a novel design platform for future micro-/nano- systems.