Sol-gel prepared glass for micro-optical elements and arrays

Sol-gel processes of metal alkoxides involve hydrolysis of the alkoxy groups and condensation to a 3-D oxide glass network. Volume reduction of the drying gel typically results in cracking, unless sufficient relaxation is allowed to take place. Further, the common shrinkage by a factor of 2.5 and higher imposes great difficulty to obtain dimensional accuracy in thus prepared micro-optical elements. The new fast sol-gel method enables facile preparation of siloxane-based glassy materials in which polymerization is completed within minutes and curing within a few hours. The optical quality of thin films obtained by the fast sol-gel method and the ease of preparation makes this method technologically and economically attractive for micro-lenses and micro-optical arrays by replication. Micro-optical arrays are highly patterned, including sharp curvatures of small radii. This necessitates to study primarily two aspects of the sol-gel replication process: (1) the chemical constitution of the sol-gel and the reaction pathway that ensures prompt adhesion to the template during the process. (2) the surface chemical adaptation of the template that allows timing of adhesion and release of the produced elements. The adaptation of this process to the desired replication is described. Thence, the results of preliminary fabrication of micro-optical elements and arrays by this method are shown and their features discussed.