3D-Printed Phase Waveplates for THz Beam Shaping

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates the design, fabrication, and testing of 3D-printed THz phase waveplates that shape THz beams into predefined intensity profiles, leveraging affordable polymer materials and 3D printing technology.

Contribution

It introduces a novel method for calculating and fabricating custom THz waveplates using 3D printing and a modified Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm.

Findings

Good agreement between experimental results and theoretical predictions.

Effective beam shaping using 3D-printed polymer waveplates.

Feasibility of affordable, custom THz components via 3D printing.

Abstract

The advancement of 3D-printing opens up a new way of constructing affordable custom terahertz (THz) components due to suitable printing resolution and THz transparency of polymer materials. We present a way of calculating, designing and fabricating a THz waveplate that phase-modulates an incident THz beam ({\lambda}=2.14 mm) in order to create a predefined intensity profile of the optical wavefront on a distant image plane. Our calculations were performed for two distinct target intensities with the use of a modified Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm. The resulting phase-modulating profiles were used to model the polyactide elements, which were printed out with a commercially available 3D-printer. The results were tested in an THz experimental setup equipped with a scanning option and they showed good agreement with theoretical predictions.