Subdiffraction 3D Nanolithography by Two-Photon Two-Step Absorption and Photoinhibition

Improving the 3D resolution is a decisive step in the transition of direct laser writing from being limited to research use to being a powerful tool. Three-color (3CL) lithography is expected to result in significantly higher resolution with two-color lasers initiating polymerization in two steps and one-color laser inhibiting polymerization. However, the 3CL process increases the complexity of the system and makes the influence of chromatic aberration worse which leads to non-ideal writing results, which is approximate to 80 nm linewidth (approximate to lambda/10) at present. In this study, the 3CL lithography is improved by introducing almost one color (1CL) instead of three colors to achieve subdiffraction 3D nanolithography based on two-photon two-step absorption and photoinhibition (T(2)A-PI). Using benzil as a photoinitiator, a sub-30 nm (更多