Design and Fabrication of Straight Waveguides, Tapers and S-Bends with Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing

Direct laser writing with two-photon polymerization technique allows high-speed and single-step manufacturing of complex 3D optical components [1]. 3D-printed waveguiding components and devices can be separated into a standalone category, where optical communication and sensing applications are the main targets. Yet the actively developing domain is lacking well developed design and fabrication rules and in-depth study for different building blocks. In our study, we have adopted a bottom-up research approach and first numerically studied and then experimentally demonstrated a series of low-loss fiber-coupled waveguiding components.