The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
May. 04, 2004
Filed:
Jul. 12, 2000
Kiyotaka Miura, Nara, JP;
Jianrong Qiu, Kyoto, JP;
Yuki Kondo, Nara, JP;
Kazuyuki Hirao, Kyoto-fu, JP;
Other;
Abstract
An inorganic body containing rare earth and/or transition metal ions that has been irradiated with a pulsed laser beam in the manner such that a focal point of the pulsed laser beam is adjusted to an inner part of the inorganic body is disclosed. The inorganic body may be a glass or crystal containing one or more of oxide, halide and chalcogenide. The rare earth ion may be one or more of Ce, Nd, Pr, Sm, Eu, Tb, Dy, Tm, Tb. The transition metal ion may be one or more of Ti, Mn, Cr, V, Fe, Cu, Mo and Ru. When the focal point is relatively shifted with respect to the inorganic body, an ionic valence-changed domain is formed with a predetermined pattern at the inner part of the inorganic body. The pulsed laser beam preferably has a pulse width under a picosecond. The ionic valence change occurs at the focal point and its vicinity, but the rare earth or transition metal ion keeps its original valence at all other parts, so as to form a reformed domain with a predetermined pattern in the inorganic body. Since optical properties are selectively changed at the reformed domain, the processed inorganic body is useful as a functional device such as a memory device or a light-emitting device using the differentiated optical properties.