Click chemistry assisted organic-inorganic hybrid photoresist for ultra-fast two-photon lithography

Although the development of two-photon lithography (TPL) for decades of years, fabrication of 2D micro architectures with high throughput is still challenging, due to the lack of suitable photoresists for ultra-fast TPL. In present work, curable zirconia nanoclusters (Zr-NCs) and click-chemistry were incorporated together to form an organic-inorganic hybrid photoresist. Interestingly, Zr-NCs endowed photoresists higher photosensitivity by means of improving the adsorption capacity and reducing the absolute fluorescence quantum yield of used initiator. Moreover, oxygen inhibition had been eliminated by effective thiol-ene click reaction. As a result, the maximum lithography speed of achieved photoresist was significantly enhanced to 2.0 m s-1, that was dozens of times higher than the reported TPL photoresists. Meanwhile, the photoresist also exhibited a distinguish minimum feature size (59 nm), attributed to high sensitivity and inhibited diffusion of free radical in solid photoresist film. Finally, a high quality micro QR code had been successful prepared by our photoresist at 1.0 m s-1, which can be recognized to visit the affiliated website. Therefore, this work might provide an alternative strategy to pave the way of ultra-fast 2D TPL.

Automated summary

In this study, an organic-inorganic hybrid photoresist with high photosensitivity was successfully prepared by incorporating curable zirconia nanoclusters and click-chemistry. The photoresist exhibited a significantly enhanced maximum lithography speed and a distinguishable minimum feature size, providing an alternative strategy for ultra-fast 2D TPL.