Photonic waveguides are prime candidates for integrated and parallel photonic interconnects. Such interconnects correspond to large-scale vector matrix products, which are at the heart of neural network computation. However, parallel interconnect circuits realized in two dimensions, for example, by lithography, are strongly limited in size due to disadvantageous scaling. We use three-dimensional (3D) printed photonic waveguides to overcome this limitation. 3D optical couplers with fractal topology efficiently connect large numbers of input and output channels, and we show that the substrate's area and height scale linearly. Going beyond simple couplers, we introduce functional circuits for discrete spatial filters identical to those used in deep convolutional neural networks.

We propose the single-step fabrication of (3+1)D graded-index (GRIN) optical elements by introducing the light exposure as the additional dimension. Following this method, we demonstrate two different optical devices: Volume holograms that are superimposed using angular and peristrophic multiplexing and optical waveguides with a well-defined refractiveindex profile. In the latter, we precisely control the propagating modes via tuning the 3D-printed waveguide parameters and report step-index and graded-index core-cladding transitions.

Photonic waveguides are promising candidates for implementing parallel, ultra-fast and ultra-low latency interconnects. Such interconnects are an important technological asset for example for next generation optical routing, on and intra-chip optical communication, and for parallel photonic neural networks. We have recently demonstrated dense optical integration of multi-mode optical interconnects based on 3D additive manufacturing using two-photon-polymerization. The basis of such interconnects are 3D optical splitters, and here we characterize their performance against their splitting ratio, geometry, and conditions of the direct laser writing. Optical losses and splitting uniformity of 1 to 4, 1 to 9 and 1 to 16 splitters are evaluated at 632 nm. We find that, both, the uniformity of splitting ratios as well as the overall losses depend on the separation between the output waveguides as well as on the hatching distance (surface quality) of the 3D printing process.

We report on the realization of functional infrared light concentrators based on a thick layer of air-polymer metamaterial with controlled pore size gradients. The design features an optimum gradient index profile leading to light focusing in the Fresnel zone of the structures for two selected operating wavelength domains near 5.6 and 10.4 μm. The metamaterial which consists in a thick polymer containing air holes with diameters ranging from λ/20 to λ/8 is made using a 3D lithography technique based on the two-photon polymerization of a homemade photopolymer. Infrared imaging of the structures reveals a tight focusing for both structures with a maximum local intensity increase by a factor of 2.5 for a concentrator volume of 1.5 λ3, slightly limited by the residual absorption of the selected polymer. Such porous and flat metamaterial structures offer interesting perspectives to increase infrared detector performance at the pixel level for imaging or sensing applications.