25 nm-Feature, 104-aspect-ratio, 10 mm2-area single-pulsed laser nanolithography
Zhi Chen, Lijing Zhong, Xiangyu Sun, Yihui Fu, H. H. He, Huijiao Ji, Yuying Wang, Xiaofeng Liu, Beibei Xu, Zhemin Wu, Chen Zou, Zhijun Ma, Jingyu Zhang, Guoping Dong, Giuseppe Barillaro, Cheng‐Wei Qiu, Jianbei Qiu, Jianrong Qiu, Jianrong Qiu, Jianrong Qiu
Abstract
One of the major challenges in the rapidly advancing field of nanophotonics is creating high-aspect-ratio nanostructures over large-area with consistent precision. Traditional techniques like photolithography and etching fall short, being limited to fabricating structures with a typical feature size of 100 nm and a maximum aspect ratio of 30:1. To break through these barriers, herein we introduce a strategy, called wet-chemical etching assisted aberration-enhanced single-pulsed femtosecond laser-supplemented nanolithography (WEALTH), for manufacturing large-area deep holey nanostructures. This strategy enables fabrication of nanostructures with diameters as small as 25 nm (exceeding 1/30 of Abbe’s diffraction limit), aspect ratios greater than 104:1, and large-area holey lattices spanning 10 mm2 with potential scalability up to several cm2. We have successfully harnessed this technique to develop cutting-edge applications, including immunoassay biosensing chips, large-area nanophotonic crystals, nanophotonic crystal microcavities, and chiral nanophotonic devices. Moreover, it is adaptable to a wide range of materials, including crystals, glasses, and silicon-based semiconductors. Our approach offers high flexibility in customizing large-area holey nanophotonic structures, paving the way for breakthrough advancements in 3D integrated optics. This work proposes a wet-chemical etching assisted aberration-enhanced single-pulsed femtosecond laser nanolithography, named “WEALTH”, for manufacturing small-size, large-area, deep holey nanostructures, promising for emerging nanophotonic devices.