3D printed low-loss THz waveguide based on Kagome photonic crystal structure

A low-loss hollow core terahertz waveguide based on Kagome photonic crystal structure has been designed and fabricated by 3D printing. The 3D printed waveguide has been characterized by using THz time-domain spectroscopy. The results demonstrate that the obtained waveguide features average power propagation loss of 0.02 cm (1) for 0.2-1.0 THz (the minimum is about 0.002 cm(-1) at 0.75 THz). More interesting, it could be simply mechanically spliced without any additional alignment, while maintaining the excellent performance. The 3D printing technique will be a promising solution to fabricate Kagome THz waveguide with well controllable characteristics and low cost. (C) 2016 Optical Society of America