Single-color peripheral photoinhibition lithography of nanophotonic structures
Minfei He, Zhimin Zhang, Chun Cao, Yiwei Qiu, Xiaoming Shen, Guozun Zhou, Zixin Cai, Xinjie Sun, Xin He, Liang Xu, Xi Liu, Chenliang Ding, Yaoyu Cao, Cuifang Kuang, Xu Liu, Xu Liu, Xu Liu
Abstract
Abstract Advances in direct laser writing to attain super-resolution are required to improve fabrication performance and develop potential applications for nanophotonics. In this study, a novel technique using single-color peripheral photoinhibition lithography was developed to improve the resolution of direct laser writing while preventing the chromatic aberration characteristics of conventional multicolor photoinhibition lithography, thus offering a robust tool for fabricating 2D and 3D nanophotonic structures. A minimal feature size of 36 nm and a resolution of 140 nm were achieved with a writing speed that was at least 10 times faster than existing photoinhibition lithography. Super-resolution and fast scanning enable the fabrication of spin-decoupled metasurfaces in the visible range within a printing duration of a few minutes. Finally, a subwavelength photonic crystal with a near-ultraviolet structural color was fabricated to demonstrate the potential of 3D printing. This technique is a flexible and reliable tool for fabricating ultracompact optical devices.