Beschreibung
We propose a technique for additive manufacturing of polymer step-index (STIN) optics. The process is composed of aerosol jet multi-material deposition followed by laser-assisted stereolithography in an alternating fashion to fabricate multi-material three-dimensional objects. The layer-wise dynamic tuning of the refractive index provides the possibility to fabricate optics with tailored index profiles. The index range achieved by the presented approach is considerably higher than the common index tuning techniques. Using this technique, a planar multilayer STIN lens is fabricated. The index profile of the fabricated lens has similar progression to the designed profile. In addition, through simulation and also optical characterization, the lensing functionality of the structure is observed
