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Abstract
Micro-optics have become an essential component in many modern technologies. This can be credited to the perpetually growing needs of communication bandwidths for increased processing power in smaller volumes. With this push to miniaturize systems, micro-optics found its foundation. Initially, micro-optics encompassed micro-scale refractive lenses and simple diffractive optics. Since initial applications in the latter twentieth century, the field of micro-optics has greatly expanded. Micro-optics now encompasses research in areas such as integrated optics, micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS), quantum technology, sensing, energy harvesting, and meta\-materials. In its current stage, dynamically tunable micro-optics are crucial to providing additional processing power without increasing volume. Micro-structured optics comprise a subsection of micro-optics where the optical response is manipulated by some sub-wavelength or wavelength-scale structures. The most common example of micro-structured optics are diffractive gratings, but more recently developed configurations such as metamaterials and structures such as photonic crystals also fall within this scope. One challenge in developing micro-structured optics are restrictions in terms of geometric freedom and extensive prototyping times. As a solution to some of these challenges, rapid prototyping techniques such as additive manufacturing have been employed in the development of complex two- and three-dimensional micro-structured optics. Two-photon polymerization, a direct laser writing process, has become a widely accepted approach for the development of micro-structured optics. Two-photon polymerization provides nano-scale feature sizes, resolutions which surpass the diffraction limit of the light source. Many of the resins compatible with this technique are transparent for broad regions in the visible and infrared spectral ranges. This allows micro-optics to be fabricated without necessitating a secondary processing step. In search of ways to provide additional degrees of tuning in micro-optics, the unique properties of these two-photon compatible resins can be exploited. In this study, dynamically tunable micro-structured optics are developed by two-photon polymerization. Being a polymer, the fabricated structures have unique mechanical properties when compared with conventional glass and metal optics. Utilizing this quality, the structures are designed such that their optical response is sensitive to induced mechanical stress or strain. Both sub-wavelength and wavelength-scale micro-structured arrays were investigated for this mechanical tuning. In each case, changes in the structure's geometry due to mechanical stimuli resulted in a change in the optical response. In combination with a MEMS device, the investigated structures could have applications in integrated optics, mechanical sensing and beamsplitting, and tunable bandgap filtering.