E-Mail
IMAGE: 3D-printed miniature spectrometer. a, wave-optical simulation of the spectrometer. b, microscope image of the fabricated spectrometer overlayed with the intensity distribution from a. c, array of fabricated spectrometers.
view more
Credit: by Andrea Toulouse, Johannes Drozella, Simon Thiele, Harald Giessen, and Alois Herkommer
Femtosecond direct laser writing as a 3D printing technology has been one of the key building blocks for miniaturization in modern times. It has transformed the field of complex microoptics since the early 2000s. Especially medical engineering and consumer electronics as vastly growing fields benefit from these developments. It is now possible to create robust, monolithic and nearly perfectly aligned freeform optical systems on almost arbitrary substrates such as image sensors or optical fibers.