Supercontinuum Generation in Soft Glass Photonic Crystal Fibers Developed Based on 3D Printed Preforms

This research investigates whether modern 3D glass printing can be used to develop advanced photonic crystal fibers suitable for supercontinuum generation. The team designs and fabricates a lead‐borate glass fiber with high nonlinearity, achieving an octave‐spanning spectrum in the mid‐infrared range. 3D glass printing represents a promising alternative to the conventional fabrication of complex optical fibers using the stack‐and‐draw method, which requires manual preform assembly. Abstract The readiness level of 3D glass printing technology for optical fiber development is explored. A preform of an air‐glass photonic crystal fiber is printed with synthesized in‐house lead borate glass using a custom‐made 3D printer. The fiber is single‐moded at a wavelength of 1.5 µm and has flat anomalous dispersion in the infrared range above 1.5 µm with a zero‐dispersion wavelength at 1.7 µm. An octave spanning supercontinuum from 1.1 to 2.2 µm is obtained by pumping the 22 cm long section of the printed fiber in the anomalous dispersion regime with 100 fs pulses at 1560 nm wavelength using a standard off‐the‐shelf fiber femtosecond laser. Despite internal structural defects, the results indicate that early‐stage 3D glass printing can enable the development of preforms for nonlinear fibers dedicated to supercontinuum generation with spectral widths comparable to state‐of‐the‐art manually assembled PCFs, but still with considerably higher losses. This research investigates whether modern 3D glass printing can be used to develop advanced photonic crystal fibers suitable for supercontinuum generation. The team designs and fabricates a lead-borate glass fiber with high nonlinearity, achieving an octave-spanning spectrum in the mid-infrared range. 3D glass printing represents a promising alternative to the conventional fabrication of complex optical fibers using the stack-and-draw method, which requires manual preform assembly. Abstract The readiness level of 3D glass printing technology for optical fiber development is explored. A preform of an air-glass photonic crystal fiber is printed with synthesized in-house lead borate glass using a custom-made 3D printer. The fiber is single-moded at a wavelength of 1.5 µm and has flat anomalous dispersion in the infrared range above 1.5 µm with a zero-dispersion wavelength at 1.7 µm. An octave spanning supercontinuum from 1.1 to 2.2 µm is obtained by pumping the 22 cm long section of the printed fiber in the anomalous dispersion regime with 100 fs pulses at 1560 nm wavelength using a standard off-the-shelf fiber femtosecond laser. Despite internal structural defects, the results indicate that early-stage 3D glass printing can enable the development of preforms for nonlinear fibers dedicated to supercontinuum generation with spectral widths comparable to state-of-the-art manually assembled PCFs, but still with considerably higher losses. Advanced Science, Volume 12, Issue 48, December 29, 2025.