Two‐Photon Polymerization of Nanocomposites for the Fabrication of Transparent Fused Silica Glass Microstructures

TLDR

Fused silica glass is preferred for high‑performance optics because of its transparency and stability, and its microstructures are sought after for micro‑optical and biomedical uses, with direct laser writing enabling sub‑micrometer structuring. The study demonstrates true 3D structuring of transparent fused silica glass via DLW at tens‑of‑micrometer resolution and approximately 6 nm surface roughness. The authors employ a two‑photon curable silica nanocomposite resin that is patterned by DLW and subsequently converted to transparent fused silica glass through thermal debinding and sintering. The resulting structures exhibit tens‑of‑micrometer resolution and ~6 nm surface roughness, enabling applications in next‑generation optics, photonics, microfluidics, and biomedical devices.

Abstract

Abstract Fused silica glass is the material of choice for many high‐performance components in optics due to its high optical transparency combined with its high thermal, chemical, and mechanical stability. Especially, the generation of fused silica microstructures is of high interest for microoptical and biomedical applications. Direct laser writing (DLW) is a suitable technique for generating such devices, as it enables nearly arbitrary structuring down to the sub‐micrometer level. In this work, true 3D structuring of transparent fused silica glass using DLW with tens of micrometer resolution and a surface roughness of R a ≈ 6 nm is demonstrated. The process uses a two‐photon curable silica nanocomposite resin that can be structured by DLW, with the printout being convertible to transparent fused silica glass via thermal debinding and sintering. This technology will enable a plethora of applications from next‐generation optics and photonics to microfluidic and biomedical applications with resolutions on the scale of tens of micrometers.