Investigation on Chalcogenide Glass Additive Manufacturing for Shaping Mid-Infrared Optical Components and Microstructured Optical Fibers

In this work, an original way of shaping chalcogenide optical components has been investigated. Thorough evaluation of the properties of chalcogenide glasses before and after 3D printing has been carried out in order to determine the impact of the 3D additive manufacturing process on the material. In order to evaluate the potential of such additive glass manufacturing, several preliminary results obtained with various chalcogenide objects and components, such as cylinders, beads, drawing preforms and sensors, are described and discussed. This innovative 3D printing method opens the way for many applications involving chalcogenide fiber elaboration, but also many other chalcogenide glass optical devices.