Single-pulse lithography of amorphous photonic architectures inside all-inorganic dielectric crystals

Zhuo Wang; Rongze Ma; Han Lin; Pengfei Zhang; Yu Lu; Feng Chen; Baohua Jia; Bo Zhang; Jianrong Qiu

doi:10.1038/s41377-026-02253-1

Your Location：

Home >

Browse articles >

Single-pulse lithography of amorphous photonic architectures inside all-inorganic dielectric crystals

Original Articles

- Single-pulse lithography of amorphous photonic architectures inside all-inorganic dielectric crystals
- Light: Science & Applications Vol. 15, Issue 6, Pages: 1985-1995(2026)
- Affiliations：
  
  1.State Key Laboratory of Extreme Photonics and Instrumentation, College of Optical Science and Engineering, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310027, China
  2.Centre for Atomaterials and Nanomanufacturing, School of Science, RMIT University, Melbourne 3000 VIC, Australia
  3.State Key Laboratory for Manufacturing System Engineering and Shaanxi Key Laboratory of Photonics Technology for Information, School of Electronic Science and Engineering, Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an 710049, China
- Author bio：
  
  Bo Zhang (zhangbobo@zju.edu.cn)
  Jianrong Qiu (qjr@zju.edu.cn)
- Funds：
- DOI：10.1038/s41377-026-02253-1
  CLC：
- Received：20 August 2025，
  
  Revised：2026-02-09，
  
  Accepted：23 February 2026，
  
  Online First：18 March 2026，
  
  Published：30 June 2026
- Accepted：
Scan QR Code
Wang, Z. et al. Single-pulse lithography of amorphous photonic architectures inside all-inorganic dielectric crystals. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1985-1995 (2026).
DOI：

Wang, Z. et al. Single-pulse lithography of amorphous photonic architectures inside all-inorganic dielectric crystals. Light: Science & Applications, 15, 1985-1995 (2026). DOI： 10.1038/s41377-026-02253-1.

摘要

Abstract

High-efficiency light modulation within transparent substrates is critically important for advancing in-chip integrated optical technologies. However

current micro/nanophotonic platforms primarily rely on 2D surface configurations

rendering them inadequate for 3D optical design in dielectric environments. Here

we introduce a precise phase-transition technique that enables the direct lithography of highly regular amorphous units in multiple transparent dielectric crystals (lithium niobates

quartz

yttrium vanadate

etc.). This unit can be rapidly written with a single ultrafast laser pulse

exhibiting a high-purity amorphization phase transition interior structure and a regular sheet-like anisotropic spatial morphology (aspect ratio reaching 190:1). We reveal that this amorphization stems from ultrafast laser-driven anisotropic thermal deposition

achieved through the synergy of the light-induced high-density free electrons and thermal effects. Such embedded units achieve more than an order of magnitude improvement in the efficiency of nonlinear beam shaping (~3% second harmonic and ~0.1% third harmonic) and offer multiple degrees of freedom for device design. This study establishes a versatile platform for on-demand production of all-dielectric micro/nanophotonic architectures in the free space of transparent dielectrics

unlocking new avenues for 3D integrated photonics.

关键词

Keywords

references

Wang, Q. et al. Optically reconfigurable metasurfaces and photonic devices based on phase change materials. Nat. Photonics 10 , 60–65 (2016)..

Li, W. B., Qian, X. F. & Li, J. Phase transitions in 2D materials. Nat. Rev. Mater. 6 , 829–846 (2021)..

Lim, J. et al. Photoredox phase engineering of transition metal dichalcogenides. Nature 633 , 83–89 (2024)..

Zhang, B. et al. 3D ultra-broadband optically dispersive microregions in lithium niobate. Nat. Commun. 16 , 6086 (2025)..

Zhang, Y. F. et al. Electrically reconfigurable non-volatile metasurface using low-loss optical phase-change material. Nat. Nanotechnol. 16 , 661–666 (2021)..

Sun, K. et al. Three-dimensional direct lithography of stable perovskite nanocrystals in glass. Science 375 , 307–310 (2022)..

Cho, S. et al. Phase patterning for ohmic homojunction contact in MoTe 2 . Science 349 , 625–628 (2015)..

John Leo, V. et al. A universal high-resolution micro-patterning technique for solution-processed materials. Light Adv. Manuf. 6 , 228–235 (2025)..

Chen, R. Z. et al. A comprehensive nano-interpenetrating semiconducting photoresist toward all-photolithography organic electronics. Sci. Adv. 7 , eabg0659 (2021)..

Huang, J. S. et al. Integrated optical entangled quantum vortex emitters. Nat. Photonics 19 , 471–478 (2025)..

Ieong, M. et al. Silicon device scaling to the sub-10-nm regime. Science 306 , 2057–2060 (2004)..

Atabaki, A. H. et al. Integrating photonics with silicon nanoelectronics for the next generation of systems on a chip. Nature 556 , 349–354 (2018)..

Shu, H. W. et al. Microcomb-driven silicon photonic systems. Nature 605 , 457–4 63 (2022)..

Zhang, B., Yan, W. C. & Chen, F. Recent advances in femtosecond laser direct writing of three-dimensional periodic photonic structures in transparent materials. Adv. Photonics 7 , 034002 (2025)..

Sakakura, M. et al. Ultralow-loss geometric phase and polarization shaping by ultrafast laser writing in silica glass. Light Sci. Appl. 9 , 15 (2020)..

Zhang, B. et al. Ultrafast laser-induced self-organized nanostructuring in transparent dielectrics: fundamentals and applications. PhotoniX 4 , 24 (2023)..

Geiselmann, M. et al. Fast optical modulation of the fluorescence from a single nitrogen–vacancy centre. Nat. Phys. 9 , 785–789 (2013)..

Sun, Y. K. et al. Non-Abelian Thouless pumping in photonic waveguides. Nat. Phys. 18 , 1080–1085 (2022)..

Wang, Z. et al. 3D imprinting of voxel-level structural colors in lithium niobate crystal. Adv. Mater. 35 , 2303256 (2023)..

Wemple, S. H. Refractive-index behavior of amorphous semiconductors and glasses. Phys. Rev. B 7 , 3767–3777 (1973)..

Shang, Y. C. et al. Ultrahard bulk amorphous carbon from collapsed fullerene. Nature 599 , 599–604 (2021)..

Kluge, M. D., Ray, J. R. & Rahman, A. Amorphous-silicon formation by rapid quenching: a molecular-dynamics study. Phys. Rev. B 36 , 4234 (1987)..

Krishnan, N. M. A. et al. Irradiation-driven amorphous-to-glassy transition in quartz: the crucial role of the medium-range order in crystallization. Phys. Rev. Mater. 1 , 053405 (2017)..

Xu, X. Y. et al. Femtosecond laser writing of lithium niobate ferroelectric nanodomains. Nature 609 , 496–501 (2022)..

Zhao, M. et al. A 3D nanoscale optical disk memory with petabit capacity. Nature 626 , 772–778 (2024)..

Huang, X. J. et al. Reversible 3D laser printing of perovskite quantum dots inside a transparent medium. Nat. Photonics 14 , 82–88 (2020)..

Zhou, J. Y. et al. Terabit-scale high-fidelity diamond data storage. Nat. Photonics 18 , 1327–1334 (2024)..

Gattass, R. R. & Mazur, E. Femtosecond laser micromachining in transparent materials. Nat. Photonics 2 , 219–225 (2008)..

Ródenas, A. et al. Three-dimensional femtosecond laser nanolithography of crystals. Nat. Photonics 13 , 105–109 (2019)..

Tan, D. Z., Zhang, B. & Qiu, J. R. Ultrafast laser direct writing in glass: thermal accumulation engineering and applications. Laser Photonics Rev. 15 , 2000455 (2021)..

Zhang, B. et al. Focal volume optics for composite structuring in transparent solids. Int. J. Extrem. Manuf. 7 , 015002 (2025)..

Rudenko, A., Colombier, J. P. & Itina, T. E. From random inhomogeneities to periodic nanostructures induced in bulk silica by ultrashort laser. Phys. Rev. B 93 , 075427 (2016)..

Zhang, B. et al. Self-organized phase-transition lithography for all-inorganic photonic textures. Light Sci. Appl. 10 , 93 (2021)..

Yue, W. & Jiang, Y. J. Crystal orientation dependence of piezoelectric properties in LiNbO 3 and LiTaO 3 . Opt. Mater. 23 , 403–408 (2003)..

Sanna, S. & Schmidt, W. G. LiNbO 3 surfaces from a microscopic perspective. J. Phys. Condens. Matter 29 , 413001 (2017)..

Boysen, H. & Altorfer, F. A neutron powder investigation of the hightemperature structure and phase transition in LiNbO 3 . Acta Crystallogr. Sect. B Struct. Sci., Cryst. Eng., Mater. B50 , 405–414 (1994)..

Fu, Y. B. et al. Origin of the difference in thermal conductivity and anharmonic phonon scattering between LiNbO 3 and LiTaO 3 . CrystEngComm 23 , 8572–8578 (2021)..

Yao, S. H. et al. Growth, optical and thermal properties of near-stoichiometric LiNbO 3 single crystal. J. Alloy. Compd. 455 , 501–505 (2008)..

Bashir, U. et al. Thermal conductivity in solid solutions of lithium niobate tantalate single crystals from 300 K up to 1300 K. J. Alloy. Compd. 1008 , 176549 (2024)..

Veithen, M. & Ghosez, P. First-principles study ofthe dielectric and dynamical properties of lithium niobate. Phys. Rev. B 65 , 214302 (2002)..

Wanie, V. et al. Control of strong-field ionization in ferroelectric lithium niobate: role of the spontaneous polarization. Phys. Rev. B 101 , 184103 (2020)..

Hsu, L. & Walukiewicz, W. Effect of polarization fields on transport properties in AlGaN/GaN heterostructures. J. Appl. Phys. 89 , 1783–1789 (2001)..

Taylor, R., Hnatovsky, C. & Simova, E. Applications of femtosecond laser induced self-organized planar nanocracks inside fused silica glass. Laser Photonics Rev. 2 , 26–46 (2008)..

Zhang, Y. et al. Nonlinear photonic crystals: from 2D to 3D. Optica 8 , 372–381 (2021)..

Wei, D. Z. et al. Experimental demonstration of a three-dimensional lithium niobate nonlinear photonic crystal. Nat. Photonics 12 , 596–600 (2018)..

Wei, D. Z. et al. Efficient nonlinear beam shaping in three-dimensional lithium niobate nonlinear photonic crystals. Nat. Commun. 10 , 4193 (2019)..

Zhu, B. et al. High conversion efficiency second-harmonic beam shaping via amplitude-type nonlinear photonic crystals. Opt. Lett. 45 , 220–223 (2020)..

Chen, P. C. et al. Quasi-phase-matching-division multiplexing holography in a three-dimensional nonlinear photonic crystal. Light Sci. Appl. 10 , 146 (2021)..

Wang, C. W. et al. Sequential three-dimensional nonlinear photonic structures for efficient and switchable nonlinear beam shaping. ACS Photonics 10 , 456–463 (2023)..

Views

Downloads

CSCD

Alert me when the article has been cited

Submit

Tools

Publicity Resources

Compact and programmable large-scale optical processor in free space

Continuous polarization–wavelength mapping with nonlocal metasurfaces

Editors at the frontier: exploring advanced optical engineering in the UK

Over 1.65 GW cm−2 sr−1 brightness 590 nm yellow second-harmonic generation in MOCVD-grown high-strain InGaAs/GaAs quantum well VECSEL

Making UV light visible by exciting polarization-gate phototransistor to achieve energy transfer into GaN-based blue emission

Related Author

No data

Related Institution

No data

⁰