Greatly enhanced effect of silver on femtosecond laser-induced precipitation of nonlinear optical crystals in glasses.

We report greatly enhanced femtosecond laser-induced precipitation of nonlinear optical crystals in glasses owing to the addition of silver. Ba(2)TiSi(2)O(8) (BTS) crystals were space-selectively precipitated inside a Ag(+)-doped BaO-TiO(2)-SiO(2) glass by using a focused femtosecond laser with 800 nm, 250 kHz, and 150 fs. The laser induced crystals were confirmed by micro-Raman spectra to be BTS phases. The irradiation time for crystallization in Ag(+)-doped BaO-TiO(2)-SiO(2) glasses was much shorter than that in undoped BaO-TiO(2)-SiO(2) glasses under the same irradiation conditions. The mechanism responsible for the observed phenomenon is discussed.