Additive manufacturing of nanocomposite materials for optics

Additive manufacturing technologies are currently introducing novel paradigms for the design of optical devices and for their fabrication. The object fabrication can be accomplished by either curing a liquid pre-polymer via exposure to UV radiation, or by depositing fused polymers and viscous inks, in a layer-by-layer approach. In this framework, the production of 3D optical structures is still challenging, because such components require optical transparent matrices, which can be optionally doped with nanoparticles and active molecular compounds to achieve specific optical properties, such as light diffusion, absorption, emission at particular wavelengths and nonlinear optical response. In this presentation, 3D printing processes for both passive and active optical components developed in our laboratories will be presented. We investigated 3D printing process of transparent matrices and nanocomposite functional optical materials, and characterized the process variables of various composite materials.