Greifswald 2024 – wissenschaftliches Programm
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SYEC: Symposium Lasers and Photonic Technologies for Environmental Challenges
SYEC 2: Fiber-Based Plasmonic Microreactor for Flow Chemistry
SYEC 2.1: Hauptvortrag
Dienstag, 27. Februar 2024, 14:00–14:30, ELP 6: HS 4
Development of soft glass optical fibers based on 3D printed preforms — •Ryszard Buczynski1,2, Pawel Wiencław2,3, Przemyslaw Golebiewski1,2, Dariusz Pysz1, Adam Filipkowski1, Grzegorz Stepniewski1, Olga Czerwinska3, and Andrzej Burgs3 — 1Lukasiewicz Research Network, Institute of Microelectronics and Photonics, Al. Lotnikow 32/46, 02-668 Warsaw, Poland — 2Faculty of Physics, University of Warsaw, Pasteura 5, 02-093 Warsaw, Poland — 3Sygnis S.A., Al. Grunwaldzka 472, 80-309 Gdansk, Poland
We report on the development of a 3D printing system dedicated to the development of soft glass optical fiber preforms. In contrast to previous studies on 3D printing of optical fiber preforms, the proposed process is based on the deposition of straight, horizontally oriented lines to replace the manual stack-and-draw fiber assembly process. The printer consists of a miniaturized crucible for melting glass blocks and a pneumatic extrusion head. Developed in-house heavy metal oxide glass was used to print the preform. The proposed 3D glass printing system is recognized as green technology, as it significantly reduces glass waste compared to standard stack-and-draw methods, and does not use difficult-to-recycle polishing powders in the fabrication process. As a proof-of-concept, a microstructured fiber preform with a solid core and 3 rings of air holes was printed. The fiber preform was composed of 2500 microrods. The total dimensions of the preform were 60x25x25 mm. Next, the final fibers are drawn at the fiber drawing tower and further characterized. The optical quality of the glass is maintained during the process and no crystallization is observed. The proposed 3D printing method is very promising for automating development process of microstructured fibres and free-form optical components. Since there are no restrictions related to the symmetry or circular shape of the printed fiber preform, this method can be applied to develop new types of fiber optic sensors and flow-through micro-optofluidic systems.
Keywords: additive manufacturing; soft glass; microstructured optical fibers; 3D glass printing