Precise and Rapid Replication of Complex-Shaped Fused Silica Optics

Abstract

The high hardness, brittleness, and thermal resistance of fused silica glasses extremely challenge the mass production of complex-shaped fused silica optics. This paper reports a new process chain for rapidly replicating complex-shaped fused silica optics from complex molds at ambient temperature. The process chain mainly consists of the ultraprecision diamond turning of the complex-shaped molds, the rapid shape replication through the silica precursor photopolymerization, and the transparent complex-shaped optics derivation from the debinding and sintering. The directional shrinkages and surface texture evolutions in the process are comprehensively characterized for the replicated fused silica optics. After the shrinkage compensation, transparent fused silica optics with the spherical, microlens array, and hierarchical freeform surfaces are precisely replicated, exhibiting micrometric form accuracy, nanometric surface roughness, and high imaging quality. The proposed process chain provides a revolutionary approach for the mass production of precise complex-shaped fused silica optics with fundamentally improved production efficiency and complex shape formation capability.