Closely packed hexagonal conical microlens array fabricated by direct laser photopolymerization.

We apply femtosecond laser direct writing in photopolymers for manufacturing of conical microlenses and closely packed arrays thereof. We demonstrate the fabrication of high optical quality axicons of 15 µm in radius, having 150°, 160°, and 170° cone angles. Their optical properties and performance are modeled using the finite-difference time-domain method and compared with experimentally measured data. Additionally, optimization of the laser direct writing parameters regarding these types of micro-objects is presented. Possible applications of closely packed arrays of axicon microlenses are discussed, having potential attractivity in the fields of modern microscopy, light-based material processing, particle manipulation in microfluidic, and optofluidic applications.

[1]  D. Gray,et al.  Two-photon polymerization of titanium-containing sol–gel composites for three-dimensional structure fabrication , 2010 .

[2]  F. He,et al.  A microfluidic chip integrated with a microoptical lens fabricated by femtosecond laser micromachining , 2011 .

[3]  Saulius Juodkazis,et al.  Mechanisms of three-dimensional structuring of photo-polymers by tightly focussed femtosecond laser pulses. , 2010, Optics express.

[4]  P. Kazansky,et al.  Polarization sensitive elements fabricated by femtosecond laser nanostructuring of glass [Invited] , 2011 .

[5]  Hong-Bo Sun,et al.  High numerical aperture microlens arrays of close packing , 2010 .

[6]  Che-Ping Lin,et al.  Hexagonal microlens array modeling and fabrication using a thermal reflow process , 2003 .

[7]  Costas Fotakis,et al.  3D conducting nanostructures fabricated using direct laser writing , 2011 .

[8]  Hong-Bo Sun,et al.  Mask-Free Production of Integratable Monolithic Micro Logarithmic Axicon Lenses , 2010, Journal of Lightwave Technology.

[9]  R. Gadonas,et al.  Organic dye doped microstructures for optically active functional devices fabricated via two-photon polymerization technique , 2010 .

[10]  R. Gadonas,et al.  Femtosecond laser polymerization of hybrid/integrated micro-optical elements and their characterization , 2010 .

[11]  Harry A. Atwater,et al.  Microphotonic parabolic light directors fabricated by two-photon lithography , 2011 .

[12]  Y. Arakawa,et al.  Nearly diffraction-limited focusing of a fiber axicon microlens , 2003 .

[13]  Bahaa E. A. Saleh,et al.  Replication of Two-Photon-Polymerized Structures with Extremely High Aspect Ratios and Large Overhangs , 2004 .

[14]  Stavros Pissadakis,et al.  Direct laser writing of microoptical structures using a Ge-containing hybrid material , 2011 .

[15]  P. Ferraro,et al.  Tunable liquid microlens arrays in electrode-less configuration and their accurate characterization by interference microscopy. , 2009, Optics express.

[16]  Hong‐Bo Sun,et al.  Multiple-spot parallel processing for laser micronanofabrication , 2005 .

[17]  C. Fotakis,et al.  Ultra-low shrinkage hybrid photosensitive material for two-photon polymerization microfabrication. , 2008, ACS nano.

[18]  Dan Cojoc,et al.  Axicon lens on optical fiber forming optical tweezers, made by focused ion beam milling , 2006 .

[19]  Wenhao Huang,et al.  Micro lens fabrication by means of femtosecond two photon photopolymerization. , 2006, Optics express.

[20]  Hong Xia,et al.  100% Fill-Factor Aspheric Microlens Arrays (AMLA) With Sub-20-nm Precision , 2009, IEEE Photonics Technology Letters.

[21]  Satoshi Kawata,et al.  Improved spatial resolution and surface roughness in photopolymerization-based laser nanowriting , 2005 .

[22]  Martin Wegener,et al.  Three-dimensional direct laser writing inspired by stimulated-emission-depletion microscopy [Invited] , 2011, 1105.5703.

[23]  B. Chichkov,et al.  Multiphoton polymerization of hybrid materials , 2010 .

[24]  Saulius Juodkazis,et al.  Photopolymerized microscopic vortex beam generators: Precise delivery of optical orbital angular momentum , 2010 .

[25]  Mangirdas Malinauskas,et al.  A femtosecond laser-induced two-photon photopolymerization technique for structuring microlenses , 2010 .

[26]  Qing Yang,et al.  Maskless fabrication of concave microlens arrays on silica glasses by a femtosecond-laser-enhanced local wet etching method. , 2010, Optics express.

[27]  Mangirdas Malinauskas,et al.  Self-polymerization of nano-fibres and nano-membranes induced by two-photon absorption , 2010 .

[28]  Francesco Gentile,et al.  Optical micro-structures fabricated on top of optical fibers by means of two-photon photopolymerization , 2010 .

[29]  Hong Wang,et al.  Fabrication of efficient microaxicon by direct electron-beam lithography for long nondiffracting distance of Bessel beams for optical manipulation , 2005 .

[30]  Junfeng Song,et al.  High fill-factor multilevel Fresnel zone plate arrays by femtosecond laser direct writing , 2011 .

[31]  Yan Li,et al.  High efficiency multilevel phase-type Fresnel zone plates produced by two-photon polymerization of SU-8 , 2010 .

[32]  Suman Das,et al.  Large-area microlens arrays fabricated on flexible polycarbonate sheets via single-step laser interference ablation , 2010 .

[33]  S. Kawata,et al.  Three-dimensional microfabrication with two-photon-absorbed photopolymerization. , 1997, Optics letters.