Light cages and metafibres: explorations of 3D direct laser writing for novel fibre devices

Three-dimensional direct laser writing by photopolymerization is a technique allowing micro- and nanofabrication at the diffraction limit and particularly suited for fabrication on a variety of substrates. This presentation will focus on our recent efforts to generate novel fibre waveguiding structures and metasurfaces interfaced to conventional optical fibres using this technology. The first part of the talk will focus on light cages, assemblies of thin strands of polymer which allow guiding of radiation in an air core centre. The open nature of the cage makes this geometry particularly suited for sensing and explorations of light/matter interactions. The second part will focus on the interfacing of metasurfaces with fibres for applications such as broadband focusing and imaging.