3D Printing For Better Science Communication

Something I have been dealing with during my PhD, is that it is really hard to describe the 3D geometry of a photonic crystal just using words. Having pictures helps, but doesn't always cut it.

I was mulling over this problem after I was excitedly trying to explain my recent results to friends, family and collegues.... and none of them had any idea what I was talking about... Fair enough.

I saw a video by Dr Fatima a lil while back, where she mentioned a talk she saw where the speaker handed out 3D printed slices of the universe at different point ins time

💡💡💡

So: I 3D printed a scale model of my photonic crysal fiber.

Behlod! A 200:1(ish) representation of a photonic crystal fiber slice

This is only a short section, because I wanted to verify that it will actually work.

I bought some translucent PETG so the next version will look kinda like glass (maybe) and I will print a longer section. I will update with a new post once I have this longer version.

In reality these fibers are less than a quarter milimeter in diameter, and made of glass, so a scaled up version is necessary.

Now in future talks and presentations, I will have hands on props to pass around. Hopefully this will help people understand what the device I am describing actually looks like.