3D Printing Metallised Plastics as Terahertz Reflectors
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3D Printing Metallised Plastics as Terahertz Reflectors J. A. Colla1,2
· R. E. M. Vickers1,2 · M. Nancarrow1 · R. A. Lewis1,2
Received: 30 January 2019 / Accepted: 25 April 2019 / Published online: 20 May 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019
Abstract 3D printing of new metallised plastics is investigated as a means to realise rapid creation of reflective optics for the terahertz regime. The suitability of three commercially available candidate materials was tested across a range of systems which span from 0.2 to 10 THz. Simple reflective planes were printed and characterised by spectroscopy and microscopy. Samples were polished which is shown to give a dramatic improvement to the reflectivity for these materials. The results indicate that metallised plastics have potential uses in low frequency rapid prototyping of reflective optics. Keywords Terahertz · THz · 3D printing · Metallised plastic · Reflection · Reflective
1 Introduction Over the last decade or so, 3D printing technology has not only greatly improved in quality, but also in availability due to the affordability of printers and printable materials. Systems have become more compact, affordable and robust which has led to simple, computer controlled 3D printers becoming more widespread. 3D printing has gained attention due to applications where rapid fabrication of small parts is J. A. Colla
[email protected] R. E. M. Vickers [email protected] M. Nancarrow mitchell [email protected] R. A. Lewis [email protected] 1
Institute for Superconducting and Electronic Materials, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
2
School of Physics, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia
International Journal of Infrared and Millimeter Waves (2019) 40:752–762
753
harnessed. The open source nature of related software enables significantly reduced costs for highly customisable equipment including optical components [1]. The printable resolution is typically of the order of one hundred microns which is appropriate for control of terahertz radiation. These systems utilise a heated element to melt a filament that is fed through a nozzle which is moved across a heated print bed. The materials to be extruded are typically plastics which have a relatively low melting point. As the commercial market has grown, other materials have been embedded in plastics which would otherwise not have a suitable melting point to be printed in this manner. Metallised plastics are one such example which have metal powders incorporated into a plastic suitable to be 3D printed. The plastic filaments used for printing in this work were manufactured by the Netherlands-based company, ColorFabb. Terahertz (THz) science and technology is continuing to grow rapidly with applications in communication [2], spectroscopy of various materials [3], security [4] and industrial product testing [5]. Terahertz systems typically contain a number of optical components such as lenses, reflectors and waveguides [6]. The manufacture of the
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