Sub-diffraction-limited fluorescent patterns by tightly focusing polarized femtosecond vortex beams in a silver-containing glass

We report that the shape and size of fluorescent patterns can be controlled by the focused laser intensity distribution, which depends on irradiation conditions as well as on the spin and orbital angular momenta being carried by light, inducing the formation of silver cluster patterns in a silver-containing zinc phosphate glass. In particular, we demonstrate that sub-diffraction-limited inner structures of fluorescent patterns can be generated by direct laser writing (DLW) with tightly focused femtosecond laser vortex beams as Laguerre-Gauss modes (LG₀¹ ) with linear and left-handed circular polarizations. We believe this technique, further combined with dual-color DLW, can be useful and powerful for developing structured light enabled nanostructures.