3D Printing Metallised Plastics as Terahertz Reflectors

• DOI: 10.1007/s10762-019-00596-y
• Publication Date: 2019-05-21T09:32:35Z
• Authors: J. A. Colla; R. E. M. Vickers; M. Nancarrow; R. A. Lewis
• Keywords: Engineering; 0103 physical sciences; Physical Sciences and Mathematics; 01 natural sciences

3D printing of new metallised plastics is investigated as a means to realise rapid creation of reflective optics for the terahertz regime. The suitability of three commercially available candidate materials was tested across a range of systems which span from 0.2 to 10 THz. Simple reflective planes were printed and characterised by spectroscopy and microscopy. Samples were polished which is shown to give a dramatic improvement to the reflectivity for these materials. The results indicate that metallised plastics have potential uses in low frequency rapid prototyping of reflective optics.