Fabrication of mid infrared infrared optics and components by chalcogenide glass 3D printing – MIR-3D

Additive manufacturing, or 3D printing, is proving to be a powerful development method in the field of materials science. Mainly used for polymers and plastics, additive manufacturing was extended to metals, to ceramics and, most recently, to glasses. Among all the families of glasses, the chalcogenide glasses known for their transparency in the mid-infrared range (between 0.5 µm and 20 µm, depending on their composition) exhibit a growing interest in scientific and industrial communities. Indeed, they could be used for numerous applications, such as thermal imaging and the generation of new sources of infrared light, as well as the needs of society in the fields of health and the environment with the development of infrared optical sensors.
The MIR-3D project is at the crossroads between the emerging technologies of 3D printing in the field of glasses and the applications of chalcogenide glasses in the mid-infrared spectral window.
In this context, the ambitious objective of the MIR-3D project is to develop an alternative shaping method for the elaboration of sensors, lenses, fibers and many other Mid-IR components. This approach is totally new and could allow less time-consuming synthesis, and less consummation of energy and raw material resources and consequently a reduction in manufacturing costs. This new manufacturing process is of particular interest to the three partner companies of the project: UMICORE IR glass for the production of MIR lenses, SelenOptics for the production of microstructured optical fibers and DIAFIR for the production of optical sensors.

The project MIR-3D will be organized around 6 tasks:
Task 0 : Coordination, communication and popular science
Task 1 : Synthesis and 3D Printing of Chalcogenide Glasses
Task 2 : Modeling of fiber and sensor structures
Task 3: Elaboration of MIR lenses
Task 4: Fabrication of hollow core fibers
Task 5: Sensor Development and Spectroscopy

The consortium of this project is constituted of 4 partners and 1 subcontractor, two academic laboratories : the Glasses and Ceramics team of the Institute of Chemical Sciences of Rennes, University of Rennes 1 (Elaboration of chalcogenide glasses, Study of 3D printing) and the Athena team of the Fresnel Institute of Aix-Marseille University (modeling of fibers and sensors), UMICORE IR glass (thermal camera lenses made of chalcogenide glass), SELENOPTICS (fiber optics made of chalcogenide glass) and DIAFIR (sensors made of chalcogenide glass, spectroscopy and medical diagnostics)