Optical Engineering
Building Freestanding Elastomeric Waveguides: Exploring an Emerging Field
Flexible, reconfigurable elastomeric materials offer new possibilities for optics applications. Here, we discuss the emergence of elastomeric optics and two methods for creating freestanding elastomeric waveguides.
Optical microscope image of an array of PDMS micropillars. Courtesy of Iowa State University, USA
The “toolbox” for engineers who build optical components consists mainly of rigid or inelastic materials like glass, plastic and fibers. But the recent advent of soft lithography—non-photolithographic techniques for building microdevices with elastic, deformable materials—could expand the engineer’s toolbox to include more malleable materials that could enable new optics applications.
…Log in or become a member to view the full text of this article.
This article may be available for purchase via the search at Optica Publishing Group.
Optica Members get the full text of Optics & Photonics News, plus a variety of other member benefits.