Sub-micrometre accurate free-form optics by three-dimensional printing on single-mode fibres

TLDR

Micro‑optics are widely used for beam shaping, collimation, focusing and imaging. The authors employ femtosecond 3D printing to fabricate free‑form micro‑optical elements on single‑mode fibre cores, writing collimation optics, toric lenses, high‑order free‑form surfaces, and chiral photonic crystals, and assess accuracy through output pattern analysis and interferometric surface characterization. The method achieves sub‑micrometre accuracy, matches numerical predictions, and enables rapid prototyping of beam‑shaping and imaging devices on single‑mode fibres.

Abstract

Abstract Micro-optics are widely used in numerous applications, such as beam shaping, collimation, focusing and imaging. We use femtosecond 3D printing to manufacture free-form micro-optical elements. Our method gives sub-micrometre accuracy so that direct manufacturing even on single-mode fibres is possible. We demonstrate the potential of our method by writing different collimation optics, toric lenses, free-form surfaces with polynomials of up to 10th order for intensity beam shaping, as well as chiral photonic crystals for circular polarization filtering, all aligned onto the core of the single-mode fibres. We determine the accuracy of our optics by analysing the output patterns as well as interferometrically characterizing the surfaces. We find excellent agreement with numerical calculations. 3D printing of microoptics can achieve sufficient performance that will allow for rapid prototyping and production of beam-shaping and imaging devices.