Integration of electronics and photonics in active material by femtosecond laser for functional microdevice fabrication

Recently, hybrid integration of multifunctional micro-components for creating complex, intelligent micro/nano systems has attracted significant attention. These micro/nano systems have important applications in a variety of areas, such as healthcare, environment, communication, national security, and so on. Until now, fabrication of micro/nano systems incorporated with different functions is still a challenging issue, which generally requires fabrication of microcomponents beforehand followed by assembly and packaging procedures. Thus, the fabrication process is complex and costly. In recent years, the rapid development of femtosecond laser microfabrication technology has enabled direct fabrication and integration of multifunctional components, such as microfluidics, microoptics, micromechanics, microelectronics, etc., into a substrate. Particularly, in this talk, we show the use of femtosecond laser microfabrication for integrating microelectronics and microphotonics. Both microelectrodes and optical waveguides can be directly embedded in active materials after a femtosecond laser direct writing followed by electroless chemical plating. As examples, electric-optic (EO) modulators were fabricated in lithium niobate (LiNbO₃) crystal and their functions were demonstrated.