Formation and removal of multi-layered fluorescence patterns in gold-ion doped glass

Abstract

We report the formation of fluorescence patterns inside gold-doped glass medium by femtosecond-laser fabrication. Strong fluorescence images appeared from the irradiated multi-layered region after low temperature annealing. We removed the images by exposing the glass to an electric furnace or a CO2 laser beam for high temperature annealing. The method was also applied to recording, reading, and erasing of fluorescence data by a femtosecond laser, a 405-nm laser diode, and a CO2 laser respectively. © 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.