Rapid Two-Photon Polymerization of an Arbitrary 3D Microstructure with 3D Focal Field Engineering

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Optics
• Nanotechnology

Background:

• Two-photon polymerization (TPP) is a key technique for 3D precision nanofabrication.
• Current TPP methods face limitations in fabrication speed for complex 3D structures.

Purpose of the Study:

• To demonstrate a novel single-exposure or single-scan TPP method for arbitrary 3D microstructures.
• To significantly enhance the fabrication speed of TPP.

Main Methods:

• Focal field engineering was employed to control the 3D focal intensity distribution.
• The Gerchberg-Saxton algorithm was adapted to retrieve incident wavefronts for shape fidelity and smoothness.
• Demonstrated rapid polymerization of small and large 3D microstructures.

Main Results:

• Achieved single-exposure polymerization of small 3D microstructures in 0.1 s.
• Enabled continuous polymerization of larger structures at a speed of 6 µm/s using a single scan.
• Successfully fabricated microlenses generating vortex beams with varying orbital angular momentums, showcasing high precision.

Conclusions:

• The developed focal field engineering approach dramatically accelerates TPP.
• This method allows for the rapid fabrication of arbitrary 3D microstructures with high precision.
• Paves the way for widespread applications requiring fast 3D nanofabrication.