Femtosecond laser fabrication of 3D templates for mass production of artificial compound eyes

Compound eyes are unique optical imaging systems that consist of numerous separate light-sensitive units (ommatidia). Attempts have been made to produce artificial compound eyes via advanced 3D nanotechnologies. Among them, femtosecond laser direct writing (FsLDW) technology has emerged as an effective strategy due to its distinct advantages in 3D designable and high precision fabrication capability. However, the point-by-point scanning process results in a very low fabrication efficiency, limiting the practical applications of the FsLDW technology. To solve this problem, we propose a high-efficiency method for the mass production of 3D artificial compound eyes using a photopolymer template fabricated by FsLDW. The resultant 3D SU-8 compound eye templates could be used to replicate polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) compound eyes many times (over 50 times) with a highly improved efficiency (nearly 20 times higher than the efficiency of direct fabrication using the point-by-point FsLDW). The PDMS replicas showed good focusing and imaging performances. We anticipate that this method may serve as an enabler for the mass production of 3D artificial compound eyes and promote their practical applications in the near future.