Optical waveguide writing by femtosecond laser pulses is rapidly emerging as a revolutionary microfabrication technique, due to its unique capabilities of rapid prototyping and three-dimensional structuring. This talk will review the basic principles of material refractive index modification by femtosecond pulses and will describe its application to the production of optical waveguides and photonic devices. Results obtained with three different femtosecond laser systems, at low (1 kHz), medium (800 kHz) and high (25 MHz) repetition rate will be presented and compared. It will be shown that, under optimised conditions, waveguide parameters approaching those obtained with standard fabrication techniques can be achieved (mode matching to telecom fibers, propagation losses lower than 0.2 dB/cm). The talk will describe the fabrication of active devices, such as erbium-doped waveguide amplifiers and lasers tunable over the whole C band. Femtosecond laser irradiation followed by chemical etching can also be used to fabricate microfluidic channels in glass. The results of this technique and perspectives of microfluidic channel/optical waveguide integration for optical sensing of biomolecules will be discussed.

To be updated.