Fabricating inorganic materials with designed three-dimensional nanostructures is an exciting yet challenging area of research and industrial application. Here, we develop an approach to 3D print high-quality nanostructures of silica with sub-200 nm resolution and with the flexible capability of rare-earth element doping. The printed SiO₂ can be either amorphous glass or polycrystalline cristobalite controlled by the sintering process. The 3D-printed nanostructures demonstrate attractive optical properties. For instance, the fabricated micro-toroid optical resonators can reach quality factors (Q) of over 10⁴. Moreover, and importantly for optical applications, doping and codoping of rare-earth salts such as Er³⁺, Tm³⁺, Yb³⁺, Eu³⁺ and Nd³⁺ can be directly implemented in the printed SiO₂ structures, showing strong photoluminescence at the desired wavelengths. This technique shows the potential for building integrated microphotonics with silica via 3D printing.

制造具有设计的三维纳米结构的无机材料是一个令人兴奋但具有挑战性的研究和工业应用领域。在这里，我们开发了一种 3D 打印高质量二氧化硅纳米结构的方法，其分辨率低于 200 nm，并具有灵活的稀土元素掺杂能力。印刷的SiO ₂可以是由烧结过程控制的非晶玻璃或多晶方石英。3D 打印的纳米结构显示出有吸引力的光学特性。例如，制造的微型环形光谐振器可以达到超过10 ^{4的品质因数（} Q ） 。此外，对于光学应用而言，稀土盐如 Er ³⁺、Tm ^{3+的掺杂和共掺杂很重要}、Yb ³⁺、Eu ³⁺和Nd ³⁺可以直接在印刷的SiO ₂结构中实现，在所需波长下显示出强光致发光。该技术显示了通过 3D 打印用二氧化硅构建集成微光子学的潜力。