Rapid printing of metal nanostructures through projection-based two-photon reduction

Abstract

Two-photon reduction (TPR) is a laser-based technique that can print nanostructures through localized photoreduction of metal ions into nanoparticles. However, its throughput is limited by the point-by-point printing mechanism. Here, we present a projection-based TPR technique to print arbitrarily complex 2D patterns at once. Our technique scales up TPR through projection of patterned femtosecond light sheets. We demonstrate printing of silver features as small as 300 nm and achieve an areal printing rate up to 10 mm2/min, which is 30 times faster than past demonstrations of TPR. Our technique can therefore significantly advance the scalability of manufacturing metallic nanostructures.