Three-dimensional printing of glass micro-optics

Abstract

To meet the increasing needs of high-precision glass micro-optics and address the major limitations of current three-dimensional (3D) printing optics, we have developed a liquid, solvent-free, silica precursor and two-photon 3D printing process. The printed optical elements can be fully converted to transparent inorganic glass at temperatures as low as 600 C with a shrinkage rate of 17%. We have demonstrated the whole process, from material development, printing, and performance evaluation of the printed glass micro-optics. 3D printing of glass micro-optics with isotropic shrinkage, micrometer resolution, low peak-to-valley deviation ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>100</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">n</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> </mml:math> ), and low surface roughness ( <mml:math xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="inline"> <mml:mrow class="MJX-TeXAtom-ORD"> <mml:mo>&lt;</mml:mo> </mml:mrow> <mml:mn>6</mml:mn> <mml:mspace width="thickmathspace"/> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">n</mml:mi> <mml:mi mathvariant="normal">m</mml:mi> </mml:math> ) has been achieved. The reported technique will enable the rapid prototyping of complex glass micro-optics previously impossible using conventional glass optics fabrication processes.