ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the most popular laser-based 3D printing techniques.Additive manufacturing (AM) technology was developed to alleviate some of the problems of the aforementioned technologies. The process consists of printing successive layers by depositing or fusing materials, such as polymers, liquids, plastic, powders, and metal, in layers that are formed on top of each other. The main difference is with the materials, as SLS uses powdered substances, whereas SLA uses liquid resins. In SLS technique, a laser beam is moving to produce the 3D prototype, and it is selectively fusing powdered materials. In the following paragraphs, two laser-based 3D microfabrication printing techniques will be described: projection micro-stereolithography and MPL. Photonic metamaterials consist of nanostructured metal-dielectric subwavelength building components, and allow the realization of many new and unusual optical properties, such as negative refractive index, magnetism at optical frequencies, perfect absorption, and enhanced optical non-linearities.
