Silica optical fibre fabrication via 3D printing technology: material processing and related issues

Jiaying Wang; Zimeng Wu; Jing Kong; Kuoyuan Wang; Yushi Chu; Yanhua Luo; Jianzhong Zhang; Gang-Ding Peng

doi:10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00395-4

2022 Impact factor 2.8

Special Topics

Photonic Materials: From Fundamentals to Applications

Eur. Phys. J. Spec. Top. (2022) 231: 631-642
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjs/s11734-021-00395-4

Regular Article

Silica optical fibre fabrication via 3D printing technology: material processing and related issues

Jiaying Wang¹^,2^a, Zimeng Wu¹, Jing Kong¹, Kuoyuan Wang¹, Yushi Chu³^,4, Yanhua Luo¹^,2, Jianzhong Zhang³^,4 and Gang-Ding Peng¹^,2

¹ Photonics and Optical Communications, School of Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, NSW, Australia
² Materials and Manufacturing Futures Institute, University of New South Wales, 2052, Sydney, NSW, Australia
³ Key Laboratory of In-fiber Integrated Optics of Ministry of Education, College of Physics and Optoelectronic Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, 150001, Harbin, China
⁴ Fiber Optical Sensing Center for Excellence, Yantai Research Institute and Graduate School, Harbin Engineering University, 264000, Yantai, China

^a jiaying.wang@student.unsw.edu.au

Received: 18 July 2021
Accepted: 13 December 2021
Published online: 26 December 2021

Abstract

Three-dimensional (3D) printing or additive manufacturing (AM) is revolutionising manufacturing in many fields including photonic materials. As recent research shows, 3D printing could greatly facilitate the development of silica optical fibres (SOFs) of new material composition and structure designs that is very difficult with the existing manufacturing technologies. In this paper, the background, technical aspects, and prospects of 3D printing for special SOF developments are first introduced. Then, the material processing for 3D digital light processing (DLP) technology-based SOFs, including feedstock preparation, 3D printing, debinding and sintering processes, is presented. Finally, we report our recent work on material processing, 3D printing and, in particular, debinding–sintering processing and demonstrate that a continuous debinding–sintering process including a final stage of 2-h holding at 1240 C is both efficient and effective in producing desirable results. This is followed by a discussion of some key remaining issues and challenges, as well as possible solutions in further 3D SOF development.