LIBS applied to femtosecond laser ablation of ridge optical waveguides on thin films of PLZT

In this work we present the fabrication of ridge optical waveguides performed onto thin films of PLZT by femtosecond laser ablation. We use laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) in order to study the quality of micromachining process and correlate according to ablation and explosion probability, sidewall roughness and size of the grooves ablated. Finally, we set a methodology for choosing the micromachining parameters, this reduces the roughness of waveguides and improves the fabrication technique.