Femtosecond laser 3D printed micro objective lens for ultrathin fiber endoscope

Abstract

The most important optical component in an optical fiber endoscope is its objective lens. To achieve a high imaging performance level, the development of an ultra-compact objective lens is thus the key to an ultra-thin optical fiber endoscope. In this work, we use femtosecond laser 3D printing to develop a series of micro objective lenses with different optical designs. The imaging resolution and field-of-view performances of these printed micro objective lenses are investigated via both simulations and experiments. For the first time, multiple micro objective lenses with different fields of view are printed on the end face of a single imaging optical fiber, thus realizing the perfect integration of an optical fiber and objective lenses. This work demonstrates the considerable potential of femtosecond laser 3D printing in the fabrication of micro-optical systems and provides a reliable solution for the development of an ultrathin fiber endoscope.