Thanks to their high-peak power, femtosecond lasers triggers non-linear absorption events into transparent dielectrics materials, eventually leading to the formation of self-organized nanostructures, with feature sizes smaller than the laser wavelength itself.

In this presentation, we will discuss the formation of these nanostructures and show how they can be controlled and exploited for tuning bulk physical properties of dielectrics like fused silica. Finally, we will present some examples of applications in photonics and micromechanics.

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Bio

Dr. Yves Bellouard is Associate Professor in Microengineering at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in Switzerland, where he heads the Galatea lab and the Richemont Chair in micromanufacturing. Before joining EPFL in 2015, he was Associate Professor at Eindhoven University of Technologies (TU/e) in the Netherlands and prior to that, Research Scientist at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, New York for about four years. His current research interests are on new paradigms for system integration at the micro-/nano-scale and in particular, laser-based methods to tailor material properties for achieving higher level of integration in microsystems, like for instance, integrating optics, mechanics and fluidics functionalities into a single monolith.