We report the fabrication of a microstructured optical fiber drawn from a soft glass 3D printed preform. For this proof of concept, a chalcogenide glass that is well known for its capability to be shaped at low temperature and its mid-infrared transmission was selected: Te20As30Se50. The obtained negative curvature hollow core fiber shows several transmission bands in the 2–12 µm range that are reproduced numerically using finite element-based simulations and coupled mode theory.

The production of chalcogenide microstructured optical fibers with low optical losses, due to the broad transparency window of these glasses in the mid-IR, can allow for new breakthroughs in various research fields, e.g. new mid-IR laser sources and mid-IR spectroscopy. In this framework, high purity chalcogenide glasses are needed in order to minimize absorption losses. In this study, Ge 10 As 22 Se 68 samples were prepared using a double distillation method, using different combinations of chlorides and metals as getters for the physico-chemical elimination of carbon, oxygen and hydrogen impurities. Comparing the attenuation spectra of the different samples, the choice of the getters seems to be indeed a significant factor in the quality of the glass. A holey fiber has been realized by casting method using the best sample, showing that the method is suitable for this composition and that the attenuation before and after the casting are comparable.

In this work, an original way of shaping chalcogenide optical components has been investigated. Thorough evaluation of the properties of chalcogenide glasses before and after 3D printing has been carried out in order to determine the impact of the 3D additive manufacturing process on the material. In order to evaluate the potential of such additive glass manufacturing, several preliminary results obtained with various chalcogenide objects and components, such as cylinders, beads, drawing preforms and sensors, are described and discussed. This innovative 3D printing method opens the way for many applications involving chalcogenide fiber elaboration, but also many other chalcogenide glass optical devices.

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