Experimental investigation of single voxels for laser nanofabrication via two-photon photopolymerization

We report critical roles that are played by laser system parameters in two-photon laser nanofabrication, which are not significant in rapid prototyping at larger scale, including: (i) polarization-induced lateral deshaping of volume elements, voxels, the primitive building block of micronanostructures, and (ii) lateral size reduction of voxels at low numerical aperture lens focusing due to thresholding effect. Also interesting is (iii) simultaneous recording of zeroth- and higher-order diffraction patterns, which was not hindered by the two-order light intensity difference by taking the advantage of the large dynamic exposure time range of general resins, a concept that is proposed in contrast to dynamic power range. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.