Nanowerk  April 20, 2018
Researchers in Germany have developed a new solution for the coupling of optical microchips to each other or to optical fibers. They use tiny beam-shaping elements that are printed directly onto the facets of optical components by a high-precision 3D printing process. These elements can be produced with nearly any three-dimensional shape and enable low-loss coupling of various optical components with a high positioning tolerance. They produced beam-shaping elements of various designs and tested them on a variety of chip and fiber facets and reached coupling efficiencies of up to 88% between an indium phosphide laser and an optical fiber… read more. TECHNICAL ARTICLE
Microlenses and micromirrors can be produced on optical fibers and microchips by 3D nanoprinting. CREDIT: Image: Philipp-Immanuel Dietrich/Florian Rupp/Paul Abaffy, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology