Diffractive Effects of 3D printed optical elements
von Andreas, Heinrich
M. Rank, S. Pekrul, A. Horsak, Y. Bauckhage, A. Heinrich; Proceedings 118. DGaO Tagung, ISSN: 1614-8436, urn:nbn:de 0287-2017-B008-9; 2017
The purpose of this contirbution is to discuss diffractive effects generated by additive manufactured optical elements. Most 3D printing or additive manufacturing technologies have a layered structure of the part in common. Depending on the printing technology and the direction of the light passing the 3D printed element, optical effects like diffraction can be examined. The diffraction pattern occurs also on polished samples making a material analysis necessary. For example the refractive index of the cured resin is higher than of the viscous resin. For samples of a printer using DMD pixels, the pixel structure can be examined on the surface with a white light interferometer offering a good explanation as a phase grating. Using image processing in MATLAB the diffraction effects are quantized and the behavior for tilt or translation of the sample is analyzed. Additionally the diffraction effects are simulated and crosschecked with the measurement results. While interfering imaging optics the optical effects can be used for creating point patterns or lines which again can be used for optical metrology purposes.