Designer patterned functional fibers via direct imprinting in thermal drawing

Area of Science:

• Materials Science
• Nanotechnology
• Fiber Optics

Background:

• Micro/nanostructuring fibers enhances device applications.
• Current thermal fiber drawing limits patterning to one direction.
• Mass production requires longitudinally uniform patterned fibers.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop a novel technique for arbitrary surface patterning on fibers.
• To enable high-resolution, multi-directional micro/nanostructure fabrication on fibers.
• To explore applications in plasmonic metasurfaces and wearable electronics.

Main Methods:

• Developed and simulated the direct imprinting thermal drawing (DITD) technique.
• Experimentally validated the thermal imprinting process.
• Investigated key process parameters for feature size control.

Main Results:

• Achieved arbitrarily designed surface patterns on entire fiber surfaces.
• Demonstrated high-resolution patterning with feature sizes down to tens of nanometers.
• Fabricated functional nanopatterned fibers for plasmonic metasurfaces and self-powered touch sensing fabric.

Conclusions:

• The DITD technique overcomes limitations of conventional thermal drawing for fiber surface patterning.
• This method facilitates the mass production of complex, multifunctional fibers.
• DITD technology shows significant potential for advanced fiber devices, wearable electronics, and smart textiles.