Laser-assisted manipulation of polymers for coupling and assembly of photonic chips

Laser-induced forming is a contactless technique that uses absorbed laser energy in a controlled manner to deform both metallic and non-metallic materials. Laser forming aims to permanently deform a material through localized heating from a focused laser beam. However, laser forming is a technique primarily used for metals, rather than polymers. In response to this shortcoming, this project aims to determine if laser-induced forming is a feasible technique for alignment of polymeric components in photonic integrated circuits (PICs). The first results include the design of an experimental laser setup for ablation experiments on High-density polyethylene (HDPE).