Femtosecond Laser 3D Nano-Printing for Functionalization of Optical Fiber Tips

Functionalized optical fiber tips featuring miniature sizes and diverse functions have broken the limitations of traditional optical fiber with fixed shapes and single materials, significantly enriching the application scenarios in communication, sensing, imaging, and other fields. However, the unconventional shape presents challenges in manufacturing arbitrarily sophisticated 3D micro/nano structures on optical fiber tips. Femtosecond laser 3D nano-printing (FL-3DNp) technology injects new vitality into the functionalization of fiber tips due to its high-precision, customizable structure, and real 3D processing abilities, as well as advantages of non-vacuum, maskless, and plentiful materials. This paper extensively compares the key performance parameters of various micro-nano manufacturing technologies for functionalizing optical fiber probes and focuses on the FL-3DNp technology. In addition, the latest research progresses are systematically presented from the perspective of structure and application. Finally, the current research challenges and future development directions in this emerging field are discussed, aiming at providing scientific and industrial guidance for FL-3DNp in functionalizing optical fibers. This review examines various micro-nano processing technologies to evaluate their performance in functionalizing optical fiber tips. A focus is on the remarkable FL-3DNp micro-nano processing technology based on two-photon polymerization. A thorough overview of optical fiber tip functionalization achieved through this technology is provided, including structures and applications. Finally, insights into the future development direction of this field are provided. image