Fabrication of micro-tube arrays in photopolymer SZ2080 by using three different methods of a direct laser polymerization technique

In this paper we demonstrate femtosecond laser fabrication of micro-tubes with a height of several tens of micrometers in the photopolymer SZ2080 by three different methods: direct laser writing, using the optical vortex beam and holographic lithography. The flexibility of direct laser writing and dramatic increase of production efficiency by applying the vortex-shaped beam and four-beam interference approaches are presented. Sample arrays of micro-tubes were successfully manufactured applying all three methods and the fabrication quality as well as efficiency of the methods is compared. The processing time of a single micro-tube with 60 ?m height and 3 ?m inner radius is reduced 400 times for the holographic lithography technique and 500 times for the optical vortex method compared with the direct laser writing technique. The processing time of a micro-tube array containing 400?micro-tubes is the shortest for the holographic lithography method but not for the optical vortex method as in the case of a single micro-tube, because the holographic lithography method does not require time for sample translation. Additionally, the holographic lithography enables manufacturing of the whole micro-tube array by a single exposure. Although point-by-point photo-structuring ensures unmatched complexity of manufactured microstructures, employing nowadays high repetition rate amplified femtosecond lasers combined with beam shaping or several beam interference can envisage industrial applications for practical demands.

[1]  John F. Donegan,et al.  Two-photon polymerisation of novel shapes using a conically diffracted femtosecond laser beam , 2011 .

[2]  Bishnu P. Pal.  Frontiers in Guided Wave Optics and Optoelectronics , 2010 .

[3]  M. Rutkauskas,et al.  Formation of collimated beams behind the woodpile photonic crystal , 2011 .

[4]  Saulius Juodkazis,et al.  Holographic lithography of periodic two- and three-dimensional microstructures in photoresist SU-8. , 2006, Optics express.

[5]  Dielectric Materials Volume and Surface Processing Using Femtosecond Vortex Beam , 2011 .

[6]  Pavel Zemánek,et al.  Formation of long and thin polymer fiber using nondiffracting beam. , 2006, Optics express.

[7]  B. Chichkov,et al.  Multi-focus two-photon polymerization technique based on individually controlled phase modulation. , 2010, Optics express.

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

[9]  Kevin P. Chen,et al.  Photonic crystals with defect structures fabricated through a combination of holographic lithography and two-photon lithography , 2010 .

[10]  Chantal Andraud,et al.  Three-dimensional microfabrication by two-photon-initiated polymerization with a low-cost microlaser. , 2002, Optics letters.

[11]  B. Chichkov,et al.  Influence of hybrid organic–inorganic sol–gel matrices on the photophysics of amino-functionalized UV-sensitizers , 2011 .

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

[13]  Oliver G. Schmidt,et al.  Process integration of microtubes for fluidic applications , 2006 .

[14]  Guo Ping Wang,et al.  Design and fabrication of diverse metamaterial structures by holographic lithography. , 2008, Optics express.

[15]  Karen Willcox,et al.  Kinetics and kinematics for translational motions in microgravity during parabolic flight. , 2009, Aviation, space, and environmental medicine.

[16]  Saulius Juodkazis,et al.  Three-Dimensional Micro-and Nano-Structuring of Materials by Tightly Focused Laser Radiation , 2008 .

[17]  Koji Ikuta,et al.  Three-dimensional microfabrication by use of single-photon-absorbed polymerization , 2000 .

[18]  Satoshi Kawata,et al.  Two-photon photopolymerization and 3D lithographic microfabrication , 2005 .

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

[20]  M. Gu,et al.  Two-photon polymerisation for three-dimensional micro-fabrication , 2006 .

[21]  M. Malinauskas,et al.  Applications of nonlinear laser nano/microlithography: fabrication from nanophotonic to biomedical components , 2011, Other Conferences.

[22]  E. Ryabov,et al.  Intramolecular vibrational redistribution: from high-resolution spectra to real-time dynamics , 2012 .

[23]  Xinghua Yang,et al.  Facile route to fabricate large-scale silver microtubes , 2007 .

[24]  C. Fotakis,et al.  On the design and fabrication by two-photon polymerization of a readily assembled micro-valve , 2010 .

[25]  Min Gu,et al.  Dynamic generation of Debye diffraction-limited multifocal arrays for direct laser printing nanofabrication. , 2011, Optics letters.

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

[27]  Shoji Maruo,et al.  Single-anchor support and supercritical CO2 drying enable high-precision microfabrication of three-dimensional structures. , 2009, Optics express.

[28]  Mangirdas Malinauskas,et al.  Fabrication of Scaffolds and Micro-Lenses Array in a Negative Photopolymer SZ2080 by Multi-Photon Polymerization and Four-Femtosecond-Beam Interference , 2011 .

[29]  B. Chichkov,et al.  Pulsed laser deposition of antimicrobial silver coating on Ormocer® microneedles , 2009, Biofabrication.

[30]  W. Liu,et al.  Glass fibers templated preparation of TiO2 microtubes assembled from nano/micro hierarchical TiO2 crystals , 2011 .

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

[32]  Makoto Ishida,et al.  Out-of-plane microtube arrays for drug delivery—liquid flow properties and an application to the nerve block test , 2009, Biomedical microdevices.

[33]  M. Gedvilas,et al.  Fabrication of Periodic Micro-Structures by Multi-Photon Polymerization Using the Femtosecond Laser and Four-Beam Interference , 2011 .

[34]  Flexible Microstructuring of Thin Films Using Multi-beam Interference Ablation with Ultrashort Lasers , 2011 .

[35]  S. Juodkazis,et al.  Three-dimensional micro-/nano-structuring via direct write polymerization with picosecond laser pulses. , 2011, Optics express.

[36]  K Sternberg,et al.  Three-dimensional laser micro- and nano-structuring of acrylated poly(ethylene glycol) materials and evaluation of their cytoxicity for tissue engineering applications. , 2011, Acta biomaterialia.