Miroslav VLCEK
University of Pardubice, Czech Republic
Title: Chalcogenide glasses – their micro/nanostructuring, examples of applications
Biography
Biography: Miroslav VLCEK
Abstract
Chalcogenide glasses (CHGs) are very promising materials for many photonic applications due to their unique properties and functionalities. They posess for example wide IR transmission window, high non-linearity of optical properties, high refractive index and many of them are sensitive to bandgap or UV light, or electron and ion beams. In adition, their composition can be locally modified by exploiting radiation induced diffusion and dissolution of suitable metals (e.g., Ag, Zn). All these structural/compositional changes result in selective wet or dry etching which allows ChGs surface structuring on micro and/or even nanoscale. Lower rigidity and lower softening temperatures in comparison with classical oxide glasses allow their surface to be corrugated by direct laser writing method or by embossing. In this paper, we review methods of CHGs micro and nanostructuring and demonstrate applications of CHGs thin films prepared by vacuum based or solution based deposition techniques (such as spin-coating) in high-resolution UV, electron lithography and as materials for fabrication of diffractive elements for VIS and IR spectral region.