Additive Manufacturing of Inorganic Transparent Materials for Advanced Optics

Additive manufacturing (AM) technology offers the capability to use multiple glass materials and to print complex freeform shape designs and gradient index (GRIN) optics.  Although AM is widely used to print commercial 3-dimension metal and plastic/polymer parts, there are no viable commercial solutions for AM of inorganic transparent glasses for high-quality optical components. The proposed Phase II work will fully develop the innovative AM process, demonstrated in Phase I, capable to produce the prescribed optics in the topic description with good control of the part geometry, full glass densification, and smooth surface quality typical of current optical lenses made of inorganic glasses.  The resulting geometry, and mechanical and microstructural properties of the produced optical components will be fully characterized to validate the effectiveness of the AM process.