Three-dimensional printing of silica glass with sub-micrometer resolution

Po-Han Huang, Miku Laakso, Pierre Edinger, Oliver Hartwig, Georg S. Duesberg, Lee-Lun Lai, Joachim Mayer, Johan Nyman, Carlos Errando-Herranz, Göran Stemme, Kristinn B. Gylfason and Frank Niklaus ()
Additional contact information
Po-Han Huang: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Miku Laakso: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Pierre Edinger: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Oliver Hartwig: University of the Bundeswehr Munich & SENS Research Center
Georg S. Duesberg: University of the Bundeswehr Munich & SENS Research Center
Lee-Lun Lai: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Joachim Mayer: RWTH Aachen University
Johan Nyman: Linköping University
Carlos Errando-Herranz: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Göran Stemme: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Kristinn B. Gylfason: KTH Royal Institute of Technology
Frank Niklaus: KTH Royal Institute of Technology

Nature Communications, 2023, vol. 14, issue 1, 1-10

Abstract: Abstract Silica glass is a high-performance material used in many applications such as lenses, glassware, and fibers. However, modern additive manufacturing of micro-scale silica glass structures requires sintering of 3D-printed silica-nanoparticle-loaded composites at ~1200 °C, which causes substantial structural shrinkage and limits the choice of substrate materials. Here, 3D printing of solid silica glass with sub-micrometer resolution is demonstrated without the need of a sintering step. This is achieved by locally crosslinking hydrogen silsesquioxane to silica glass using nonlinear absorption of sub-picosecond laser pulses. The as-printed glass is optically transparent but shows a high ratio of 4-membered silicon-oxygen rings and photoluminescence. Optional annealing at 900 °C makes the glass indistinguishable from fused silica. The utility of the approach is demonstrated by 3D printing an optical microtoroid resonator, a luminescence source, and a suspended plate on an optical-fiber tip. This approach enables promising applications in fields such as photonics, medicine, and quantum-optics.

Date: 2023
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DOI: 10.1038/s41467-023-38996-3

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