Birefringent optical retarders from laser 3D-printed dielectric metasurfaces

Structuring light attracts continuous research effort due to its impactful applications in optical information and communications, laser material processing, optical imaging, or optical manipulation of matter. In particular, femtosecond laser direct writing of photoresists is a technology dedicated to the creation of optically isotropic free-form 3D micro-optical elements with size, spatial resolution, and surface quality that qualify to demanding integrated optics needs. Here, we report on the design, production, and characterization of dielectric metasurface birefringent optical retarders made from femtosecond laser 3D printing technology whose polarization conversion efficiency is more than 10 times larger than that previously reported Wang et al., Appl. Phys. Lett. 110, 181101 (2017)]. As the flexibility of the fabrication process allows considering arbitrary orientation of the artificially engineered optical axis, these results open up for 3D printed geometric phase optical elements.

[1]  C. Liberale,et al.  3D printed waveguides based on photonic crystal fiber designs for complex fiber-end photonic devices , 2020, Optica.

[2]  B. Quirk,et al.  Ultrathin monolithic 3D printed optical coherence tomography endoscopy for preclinical and clinical use , 2020, Light: Science & Applications.

[3]  Jacob Scheuer,et al.  Optical Metasurfaces Are Coming of Age: Short- and Long-Term Opportunities for Commercial Applications , 2020 .

[4]  Harald Giessen,et al.  3D printed stacked diffractive microlenses. , 2019, Optics express.

[5]  S. Juodkazis,et al.  Additive-manufacturing of 3D glass-ceramics down to nanoscale resolution , 2018, Nanoscale Horizons.

[6]  Harald Giessen,et al.  Single mode fiber based delivery of OAM light by 3D direct laser writing. , 2017, Optics express.

[7]  Saulius Juodkazis,et al.  Dielectric geometric phase optical elements fabricated by femtosecond direct laser writing in photoresists , 2016, 1612.04487.

[8]  A. Žukauskas,et al.  Wrinkled axicons: shaping light from cusps. , 2016, Optics express.

[9]  Lorenzo Marrucci,et al.  Spin–orbit photonics , 2015, Nature Photonics.

[10]  F. J. Rodríguez-Fortuño,et al.  Spin–orbit interactions of light , 2015, Nature Photonics.

[11]  YongKeun Park,et al.  Recent advances in wavefront shaping techniques for biomedical applications , 2015, 1502.05475.

[12]  E. Brasselet.  Optical angular momentum conversion in a nanoslit: comment. , 2013, Optics letters.

[13]  Mangirdas Malinauskas,et al.  Laser 3D micro/nanofabrication of polymers for tissue engineering applications , 2013 .

[14]  S. Kawata,et al.  Three-dimensional microfabrication with two-photon-absorbed photopolymerization. , 1997, Optics letters.

[15]  K. Miura,et al.  Writing waveguides in glass with a femtosecond laser. , 1996, Optics letters.

[16]  W Stork,et al.  Artificial distributed-index media fabricated by zero-order gratings. , 1991, Optics letters.

[17]  O. Tsilipakos,et al.  Micro-Ring Resonator Devices Prototyped on Optical Fiber Tapers by Multi-Photon Lithography , 2021, IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics.

[18]  A. Melninkaitis,et al.  Optical damage thresholds of microstructures made by laser three-dimensional nanolithography , 2019 .

[19]  Mangirdas Malinauskas,et al.  Effect of the photoinitiator presence and exposure conditions on laser-induced damage threshold of ORMOSIL (SZ2080) , 2015 .