3D printed optics with a soft and stretchable optical material

Waveguides are important optical elements for sensing, illumination, artistic displays, integrated optical circuits, as well as teaching aids for demonstrating important optical phenomena. However, despite the high demand, most optical materials are difficult to fabricate into desired shapes using state-of-the-art manufacturing technologies. This paper presents a novel method for 3D printing customizable optics with a soft and stretchable (over 100 % elastic strains) thermoplastic polymer. To showcase the versatility of this approach, several applications were demonstrated, including unique artistic illumination, caustic patterns, beam splitter and combiner on both planar and 3D conformal surfaces, and optical encoder. The printed waveguides exhibit an outstanding optical transparency of more than 98 % and an optical loss of less than 0.22 dBcm(-1). The simplicity of the fabrication process, low-cost, excellent optical properties, and flexibility provide an attractive pathway for fabricating integrated optical devices and new opportunities for controlling light.