Femtosecond laser induced rotated 3D self-organized nanograting in fused silica

Formation of rotated 3D self-organized nanograting inside fused silica is demonstrated by using a femtosecond pulse laser. The difference of birefringence signal of non-reciprocal writing lines indicates that the excited pulses may possess a finite tilt of intensity front, which produces an electric field vector parallel to the incident direction to modulate the excited electron plasma. We suggest that the orientation of nanograting depends on the correlation between the polarization plane azimuth and the tilted intensity front based on previous investigations. The result provides an opportunity to control the rotation of self-organized nanograting in three-dimensional space. (C) 2012 Optical Society of America