Methacrylate-based photopolymer waveguides are 3D printed using stereolithography as a single-step fabrication technique and the light propagation through these waveguides is investigated in the presence of various solvents. Solvent absorption on the photopolymer surface is found to play a significant role in the optical output power of the waveguide. Swelling of the photopolymer caused by the solvent absorption is found to increase the optical power transmission through the waveguide. Mixing isopropanol and glycerol with DI water separately at specific concentrations so that their respective refractive indices remain similar, it is observed that isopropanol samples increase the optical power by ~36% compared to glycerol samples, which showed optical power enhancement around 4.9%. A first-order optical model is presented that shows the increase in optical power has a spontaneous response due to the change in the refractive index of the waveguide surface upon solvent contact, followed by a dynamic response due to the formation of the swelling layer as the absorbed solvent diffuse inside the polymer. The methacrylate-based waveguide also showed selectivity towards different concentrations of isopropanol. Results from our study show that the optical properties of the given methacrylate-based photopolymer are largely affected by the absorption affinity of the solvent towards the photopolymer rather than the solvent’s refractive index, which can be crucial for designing integrated optical devices using methacrylate-based photopolymers that work in a different solvent condition.

使用立体光刻技术将基于甲基丙烯酸酯的光敏聚合物波导进行3D打印，作为一种单步制造技术，并且在存在各种溶剂的情况下研究通过这些波导的光传播。发现光聚合物表面上的溶剂吸收在波导的光输出功率中起重要作用。发现由溶剂吸收引起的光聚合物的溶胀增加了通过波导的光功率传输。将异丙醇和甘油与去离子水分别以特定浓度混合，以使它们各自的折射率保持相似，可以观察到，与甘油样品相比，异丙醇样品的光功率提高了〜36％，后者的光功率提高了4.9％左右。由于溶剂接触后波导表面折射率的变化而引起的自发响应，以及由于吸收的溶剂扩散到聚合物内部而形成的溶胀层而引起的动态响应。基于甲基丙烯酸酯的波导还显示出对不同浓度异丙醇的选择性。我们的研究结果表明，给定的基于甲基丙烯酸酯的光敏聚合物的光学性能在很大程度上受溶剂对光敏聚合物的吸收亲和力的影响，而不是溶剂的折射率的影响，这对于使用基于甲基丙烯酸酯的光敏聚合物设计集成光学器件至关重要在不同的溶剂条件下工作。