Broad-band active channels induced by electron beam lithography in LiF films for waveguiding devices

For the first time, a confocal light scanning microscope (CLSM) in fluorescence mode was used to reconstruct the depth distribution of efficiently emitting laser-active color centers (CCs) in a stripe-like region induced by 12 keV electrons on lithium fluoride (LiF) films thermally evaporated on glass. The formation of the F+3 and F2 aggregate defects appears restricted to the electron penetration and proportional to their energy depth profile, as obtained from a Monte Carlo simulation