Three-Dimensional Laser Printing of Macro-Scale Glass Objects at a Micro-Scale Resolution

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Additive Manufacturing
• Laser Physics

Background:

• Three-dimensional (3D) printing enables complex object fabrication with growing material and functional diversity.
• Femtosecond laser-induced chemical etching (FLICE) is a subtractive 3D printing method effective for glass microstructures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate the fabrication of macro-scale 3D glass objects with high resolution.
• To explore a novel regime in ultrafast laser-silica interaction for depth-insensitive focusing.

Main Methods:

• Utilized femtosecond laser-induced chemical etching (FLICE) as a subtractive 3D printing technique.
• Investigated the interaction of ultrafast laser pulses with fused silica to achieve depth-insensitive focusing.

Main Results:

• Successfully fabricated macro-scale 3D glass objects up to approximately 3.8 cm in height.
• Achieved a consistent lateral and longitudinal feature size of approximately 20 μm throughout the printed objects.

Conclusions:

• The study presents a breakthrough in 3D printing of glass, enabling large-scale, high-resolution fabrication.
• The discovered depth-insensitive focusing regime is key to achieving uniform feature sizes in thick glass.