Optical properties of waveguides fabricated in fused silica by femtosecond laser pulses.

With tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses, waveguides are fabricated in fused silica. The guiding and attenuation properties of these waveguides at wavelengths of 514 nm and 1.5 microm are studied. We demonstrate that by changing only the writing speed, waveguides with a controllable mode number can be produced.