Laser intensity-based geometry control of periodic submicron polymer structures fabricated by laser interference lithography

Abstract

Photo-polymerization based fabrication of polymer micro- and nanostructures allows flexible geometry control due to reaction kinetics that are strongly dependent on the characteristics of exposure energy. Herein, we demonstrate the geometry control of the submicron polymer structures by altering the polymerization kinetics with variations of laser pulse duration and peak intensity, simultaneously. Periodic surface structures with submicron features having Gaussian and circle function profiles, as well as unique, dimple-like, geometry nanostructures were fabricated. The demonstrated fabrication method could be applied for the development of diffraction-based optical elements and anti-reflective surfaces, or the modulation of surface wetting and tribological properties.