Air-structured optical fibre drawn from a 3D-printed preform
  A structured optical fibre is drawn from a 3D-printed structured preform. Preforms containing a single ring of holes around the core are fabricated using filament made from a modified butadiene polymer. More broadly, 3D printers capable of processing soft glasses, silica and other materials are likely to come on line in the not-so distant future. 3D printing of optical preforms signals a new milestone in optical fibre manufacture. 
Kevin Cook, John Canning, Sergio Leon-Saval, Zane Reid, Md Arafat   Hossain, Jade-Edouard Comatti, Yanhua Luo and Gang-Ding Peng
physics.ins-det physics.optics