Femtosecond laser three-dimensional micro- and nanofabrication

Journal Article · Mon Dec 15 00:00:00 EST 2014 · Applied physics reviews

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4904320· OSTI ID:22412791

Sugioka, Koji ^[1]; Cheng, Ya ^[2]

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1. RIKEN Center for Advanced Photonics, Hirosawa 2-1, Wako, Saitama 351-0198 (Japan)
2. Shanghai Institute of Optics and Fine Mechanics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 800-211, Shanghai 201800 (China)

The rapid development of the femtosecond laser has revolutionized materials processing due to its unique characteristics of ultrashort pulse width and extremely high peak intensity. The short pulse width suppresses the formation of a heat-affected zone, which is vital for ultrahigh precision fabrication, whereas the high peak intensity allows nonlinear interactions such as multiphoton absorption and tunneling ionization to be induced in transparent materials, which provides versatility in terms of the materials that can be processed. More interestingly, irradiation with tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses inside transparent materials makes three-dimensional (3D) micro- and nanofabrication available due to efficient confinement of the nonlinear interactions within the focal volume. Additive manufacturing (stereolithography) based on multiphoton absorption (two-photon polymerization) enables the fabrication of 3D polymer micro- and nanostructures for photonic devices, micro- and nanomachines, and microfluidic devices, and has applications for biomedical and tissue engineering. Subtractive manufacturing based on internal modification and fabrication can realize the direct fabrication of 3D microfluidics, micromechanics, microelectronics, and photonic microcomponents in glass. These microcomponents can be easily integrated in a single glass microchip by a simple procedure using a femtosecond laser to realize more functional microdevices, such as optofluidics and integrated photonic microdevices. The highly localized multiphoton absorption of a tightly focused femtosecond laser in glass can also induce strong absorption only at the interface of two closely stacked glass substrates. Consequently, glass bonding can be performed based on fusion welding with femtosecond laser irradiation, which provides the potential for applications in electronics, optics, microelectromechanical systems, medical devices, microfluidic devices, and small satellites. This review paper describes the concepts and principles of femtosecond laser 3D micro- and nanofabrication and presents a comprehensive review on the state-of-the-art, applications, and the future prospects of this technology.

• OSTI ID: 22412791
• Journal Information: Applied physics reviews, Vol. 1, Issue 4; Other Information: (c) 2014 Author(s); Country of input: International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA); ISSN 1931-9401
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

71 CLASSICAL AND QUANTUM MECHANICS
GENERAL PHYSICS
GLASS
HEAT AFFECTED ZONE
INTERFACES
IONIZATION
IRRADIATION
LASER RADIATION
LASERS
MICROELECTRONICS
MULTI-PHOTON PROCESSES
NANOSTRUCTURES
NONLINEAR PROBLEMS
OPTICS
POLYMERIZATION
POLYMERS
POTENTIALS
SUBSTRATES
THREE-DIMENSIONAL LATTICES
TUNNEL EFFECT