Fabrication of broadband-emissive micro/nanostructures using two-photon lithography.

Abstract

The development of broadband emissive micro/nanoscale structures has enabled unprecedented opportunities to innovate multifunctional devices with applications in lighting, display, sensing, biomedical, photovoltaics, and optical communication. Realization of these micro/nanostructures require multi-step processing, and depends on sophisticated, complex, time-consuming, expensive, and conventional nanofabrication techniques such as mask-based photolithography, electron beam lithography, reactive ion etching. Precise control overz-axis features with a subwavelength resolution for the fabrication of 3D features is a challenge using these methods. Thus, the traditional methods often fall short of meeting these requirements simultaneously. Fabrication of emissive structures demand techniques that offer material compatibility, high resolution, and structural complexity. Here, we report single-step fabrication of 1D, 2D, and 3D broadband emissive micro/nanostructures using two-photon lithography. The broadband emissive resin used for fabricating these structures is made by combining synthesized functionalized carbon quantum dots with a commercially available acrylate-based resin. The resulting structures demonstrate excellent broadband emissive properties in the visible range under UV-Vis excitation. We have observed consistent emission across the fabricated structures along with good thermal and optical stability. Furthermore, we can tune the emission properties of the micro/nanostructures by modifying the functionalization/doping of the quantum dots. These micro/nanostructures have the potential to be used as fundamental components in photonics, particularly in the fields of biophotonics, sensing, and optoelectronics, and could drive new innovations in these areas.