Additive Manufacturing of Functionalized Optical Components

Additive Manufacturing (AM) has the potential to become a powerful tool in the realization of complex optical components. However, fabrication of geometrically complicated optical structures is not the only degree of freedom that AM has to offer. It is also possible to introduce different properties into the manufactured sample by blending materials of suitable properties and manufacturing the sample through photo-polymerization of this composite material. Our research is currently focused in this direction, with the idea of formation of Nano composite mixtures for AM. With this endeavour, new sensor systems can be realized, which may be used to measure the absorption spectra of biological samples. Thereby the sample compartment, the optics and the spectral light source (different quantum dots) are 3D-printed in one run. This component can be individually adapted to the biological sample with respect to wavelength, optical and mechanical properties. Here we would like to present our work on the additive manufacturing of a monolithic active optical component showing light emission at defined wavelengths due to UV excited quantum dots inside the 3D-printed optics