Ultrafast laser nanostructuring in transparent materials for beam shaping and data storage [Invited]

We review recent progress in femtosecond laser anisotropic nanostructuring of transparent materials, including silica glass and thin films. With different writing parameters, oblate nanopores, single lamella-like structures and nanoripples are demonstrated, which can be used in geometric phase optical elements, space variant polarization converters and multiplexed optical data storage.