Encryption/decryption and microtarget capturing by pH-driven Janus microstructures fabricated by the same femtosecond laser printing parameters

Several natural organism can change shape under external stimuli. These natural phenomena have inspired a vast amount of research on exploration and implementation of reconfigurable shape transformation. The Janus structure is a promising approach to achieve shape transformation based on its heterogeneous chemical or physical properties on opposite sides.However, the heterogeneity is generally realized by multi-step processing, different materials,and/or different processing parameters. Here, we present a simple and flexible method of producing p H-sensitive Janus microactuators from a single material, using the same laser printing parameters. These microactuators exhibit reversible structural deformations with large bending angles of ~31°and fast response(~0.2 s) by changing the p H value of the aqueous environment. Benefited from the high flexibility of the laser printing technique and the spatial arrangements, pillar heights, and bending directions of microactuators are readily controlled,enabling a variety of switchable ordered patterns and complex petal-like structures on flat surfaces and inside microchannels. Finally, we explore the potential applications of this method in information encryption/decryption and microtarget capturing.

Towards in-situ diagnostics of multi-photon 3D laser printing using optical coherence tomography

In recent years,multi-photon 3D laser printing has become a widely used tool for the fabrication of micro-and nanostructures for a large variety of applications.Typically,thorough sample characterisation is key for an efficient optimisation of the printing process.To date,three-dimensional microscopic inspection has usually been carried out on finished 3D printed microstructures,that is,using ex-situ approaches.In contrast,in-situ 3D characterization tools are desirable for quickly assessing the quality and properties of 3D printed microstructures.Along these lines,we present and characterise a Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography(FD-OCT)system that can be readily integrated into an existing 3D laser lithography setup.We demonstrate its capabilities by examining different 3D printed polymer microstructures immersed in a liquid photoresist.In such samples,local reflectivity arises from the(refractive-index)contrasts between the polymerised and non-polymerised regions.Thus,the refractive index of the printed material can be extracted.Furthermore,we demonstrate that the reflectivity of polymer-monomer transitions exhibits time-dependent behaviour after printing.Supported by transfer-matrix calculations,we explain this effect in terms of the time-dependent graded-index transition originating from monomer diffusion into the polymer matrix.Finally,we show exemplary 3D reconstructions of printed structures that can be readily compared with 3D computer designs.

Laser-induced forward transferred silver nanomembrane with controllable light absorption

Laser processing provides highly-controlled modification and on-demand fabrication of plasmon metal nanostructures for light absorption and photothermal convention.We present the laser-induced forward tansfer(LIFT)fabrication of silver nanomembranes in control of light absorption.By varying the hatch distance,different morphologies of randomly distributed plasmon silver nanostructures were produced,leading to well-controlled light absorption levels from 11%to 81%over broadband.The anti-reflection features were maintained below 17%.Equilibrated and plain absorptions were obtained throughout all absorption levels with a maximum intensity fluctuation of±8.5%for the 225μJ cases.The 45μJ pulse energy can offer a highly equilibrated absorption at a 60%absorption level with an intensity fluctuation of±1%.Pattern transfer was also achieved on a thin tape surface.The laser-transferred characters and patterns demonstrate a localized temperature rise.A rapid temperature rising of roughly 15℃can be achieved within 1 s.The LIFT process is highly efficiently fabricated with a typical speed value of 10^(3)to 10^(5)cm^(2)/h.The results indicated that LIFT is a well-controlled and efficient method for the production of optical films with specific absorption levels.

Formation Process and Mechanical Deformation Behavior of a Novel Laser-Printed Compression-Induced Twisting-Compliant Mechanism

A novel compression-induced twisting(CIT)-compliant mechanism was designed based on the freedom and constraint topology(FACT)method and manufactured by means of laser powder bed fusion(LPBF).The effects of LPBF printing parameters on the formability and compressive properties of the laserprinted CIT-compliant mechanism were studied.Within the range of optimized laser powers from 375 to 450 W and with the densification level of the samples maintained at above 98%,changes in the obtained relative densities of the LPBF-fabricated CIT-compliant mechanism with the applied laser powers were not apparent.Increased laser power led to the elimination of residual metallurgical pores within the inclined struts of the CIT mechanism.The highest dimensional accuracy of 0.2% and the lowest surface roughness of 20μm were achieved at a laser power of 450 W.The deformation behavior of the CIT-compliant mechanism fabricated by means of LPBF exhibited four typical stages:an elastic stage,a heterogeneous plastic deformation stage,a strength-destroying stage,and a deformation-destroying stage(or instable deformation stage).The accumulated compressive strain of the optimally printed CIT mechanism using a laser power of 450 W went up to 20% before fracturing,demonstrating a large deformation capacity.The twisting behavior and mechanical properties were investigated via a combination of finite-element simulation and experimental verification.An approximately linear relationship between the axial compressive strain and rotation angle was achieved before the strain reached 15% for the LPBF-processed CIT-compliant mechanism.

Preparation of A Novel Hybrid Type Photosensitive Resin for Stereolithography in 3D Printing and Testing on the Accuracy of the Fabricated Parts

A novel hybrid type photosensitive resin for stereolithography in 3D printing was prepared with bisphenol A type epoxy diacrylate （EA-612）, tripropylene glycol diacrylate （TPGDA）,ethoxylated trimethyolpropane triacrylate（EO3TMPTA）, cycloaliphatic diepoxide（ERL-4221）,polycaprolactonepolyol（Polyol-0301）,1-hydroxy-cyclohphenyl ketone（Irgacure184）, and a mixture of triarylsulfonium hexafluoroantimonate salts （Ar3SSbF6）. The novel hybrid type photosensitive resin was the photosensitive resin of an epoxy-acrylate hybrid system, which proceeded free radical polymerization and cationic polymerization in ultraviolet （UV） laser. Cuboid parts and double-cantilever parts were fabricated by using a stereolithography apparatus with the novel hybrid type photosensitive resin as the processing material,and the dimension shrinkage factor and the curl factor were tested. The shrinkage factor was less than 2.00%,and the curl factor was less than 8.00%, which showed that the accuracy of the fabricated parts was high with the photosensitive resin for stereolithography in 3D printing.

A multi-photon(7×7)-focus 3D laser printer based on a 3D-printed diffractive optical element and a 3D-printed multi-lens array

One of the challenges in the field of multi-photon 3D laser printing lies in further increasing the print speed in terms of voxels/s.Here,we present a setup based on a 7×7 focus array(rather than 3×3 in our previous work)and using a focus velocity of about 1 m/s(rather than 0.5 m/s in our previous work)at the diffraction limit(40×/NA1.4 microscope objective lens).Combined,this advance leads to a ten times increased print speed of about 108 voxels/s.We demonstrate polymer printing of a chiral metamaterial containing more than 1.7×10^(12) voxels as well as millions of printed microparticles for potential pharmaceutical applications.The critical high-quality micro-optical components of the setup,namely a diffractive optical element generating the 7×7 beamlets and a 7×7 lens array,are manufactured by using a commercial two-photon grayscale 3D laser printer.

Formation mechanism and roles of oxygen vacancies in melt-grown Al_(2)O_(3)/GdAlO_(3)/ZrO_(2) eutectic ceramic by laser 3D printing

Laser three-dimensional(3D)printing has become a significant technique to fabricate high-performance Al_(2)O_(3)-based eutectic ceramics based on melt growth.However,oxygen vacancies are inevitable crystal defects during this process,and their formation mechanism and roles in the as-deposited ceramics are still unclear.In this paper,Al_(2)O_(3)/GdAlO_(3)/ZrO_(2) ternary eutectic ceramics were prepared by laser 3D printing,and the formation mechanism of the oxygen vacancies was revealed by conducting a well-designed annealing experiment.In addition,the effects of the oxygen vacancies on the structure and mechanical property of the as-solidified eutectic ceramic were investigated.The formation of oxygen vacancies is revealed to be a result of the transfer of oxygen atoms from the oxide ceramic to the oxygen-deficient atmosphere by means of vacancy migration mechanism.Besides,the presence of oxygen vacancies has no obvious effects on crystalline structure and microstructure of the additively manufactured eutectic ceramic.However,the chemical bond property changes to some extent due to the formation of these crystal defects,which may affect the mechanical property of the as-deposited eutectic ceramic.It is found that the hardness decreases by 3.9%,and the fracture toughness increases by 13.3%after removing the oxygen vacancies.The results may provide a potential strategy to regulate the mechanical property of the oxide ceramic materials.

Microstructure and Internal Friction Behavior of Laser 3D Printed Fe-Based Amorphous Composites

Laser 3D printing,also known as laser additive manufacturing(LAM),is favored for its ability to form bulk metallic glass(BMG)and its composite materials(BMGcs)with freeform geometries.In this work,two different kinds of Fe_(41)Co_(7)Cr_(15)Mo_(14)C_(15)B_(6)Y_(2)amorphous coatings(A and B)were prepared by using LAM technology under air-and water-cooled conditions,respectively;meanwhile,to reduce the cracks generated due to the residual thermal stresses,coating C obtained by air-sweep annealing of B with a low energy-density laser.The morphology and amorphous content and microstructure of the coatings were investigated,the results show many cracks in coating B deposited under water-cooled conditions,and its microstructure shows an amorphous-crystal-nanocrystalline mixed structure.Cracking was suppressed in coating C,obtained by air-sweep annealing based on coating B,but the amorphous content was reduced from 32.6 to 13.4%.And the hardness and corrosion resistance of the coating will increase with the increase in the amorphous content.Finally,the internal friction behavior of a BMGcs was prepared on the basis of the process of sample C is compared with that of as-cast amorphous alloys.The results show that the low temperature internal friction behavior of BMGcs is affected by the defects produced during printing,and the high temperature internal friction behavior is affected by the precipitated hard phase.

Influence of Software on the Features of Laser-printed Characters

Verifying the authenticity or otherwise of printed documents is one of the most important aspects of questioned document examination and plays a vital role in the field of forensic science.In recent years,continued developments in the quality of impression combined with ever-cheaper toner printers have allowed this technology to spread.It is now used in an increasing number of homes for all types of documents,including for criminal aims.Here,the factors that influence the printed features in text files are studied in relation to the operating system and the word processing software.The Net Application report in October 2014 showed that the market shares of Windows 7 and Windows XP were 53.05% and 17.18%,respectively.The Forrester report in October 2013 showed that the market share of Microsoft Office was more than 85%,the top three word processors being Microsoft Word 2003,2007,and 2010.In this study,Windows XP(shortened to XP),Windows 7(shortened to Win7),Microsoft Word 2003/2007/2010,WPS Office 2013,and the PDF format are chosen as the most common operating systems and word processing software.WPS Office was developed by the Chinese company Kings oft Co.,Ltd.and is widely used in China.A particular text file was designed and edited and was printed on a laser printe.The features of the printed characters were captured using anAnyty 3R digital microscope,Printer Expert,and X-printer devices.Coincidence comparison and outline feature extraction were used to evaluate the differences.It is shown that XP and Win7 have no effect on the printed features of text files.However,the printed features do depend to a certain extent on the word-processing software,with the PDF format having the greatest influence.

Preparation of large-size Al_(2)O_(3)/GdAlO_(3)/ZrO_(2)ternary eutectic ceramic rod by laser directed energy deposition and its microstructure homogenization mechanism

Laser 3D printing based on melt growth has great potential in rapid preparation of Al_(2)O_(3)-based eutectic ce ramics.In this work,la rge-scale Al_(2)O_(3)/GdAlO_(3)/ZrO_(2)ternary eutectic ceramic rod with diameter of 4-5 mm and height higher than 250 mm was additively manufactured by laser directed energy deposition.Especially,heat treatment was applied to eliminate the microstructure heterogeneity in the as-deposited eutectic ceramic,and the microstructure homogenization mechanism was studied in depth.The results indicate that colonies and banded structures completely disappear after the heat treatment,producing a homogeneous network eutectic structure.The microstructure homogenization is revealed to experience three stages of discontinuous coarsening,continuous coarsening and microstructure coalescence.Additionally,it is found that the eutectic spacing linearly increases with the heat treatment time,meaning that the coarsening behavior of the laser 3D-printed Al_(2)O_(3)/GdAlO_(3)/ZrO_(2)eutectic ceramic satisfies well with the Graham-Kraft model.

Frontiers of 3D Printing/Additive Manufacturing: from Human Organs to Aircraft Fabrication

It has been more than three decades since stereolithography began to emerge in various forms of additive manufacturing and 3D printing. Today these technologies are proliferating worldwide in various forms of advanced manufacturing. The largest segment of the 3D printing market today involves various polymer component fabrications, particularly complex structures not attainable by other manufacturing methods.Conventional printer head systems have also been adapted to selectively print various speciated human cells and special molecules in attempts to construct human organs, beginning with skin and various tissue patches. These efforts are discussed along with metal and alloy fabrication of a variety of implant and bone replacement components by creating powder layers, which are selectively melted into complex forms（such as foams and other open-cellular structures） using laser and electron beams directed by CAD software. Efforts to create a ＂living implant＂ by bone ingrowth and eventual vascularization within these implants will be discussed briefly. Novel printer heads for direct metal droplet deposition as in other 3D printing systems are briefly described since these concepts will allow for the eventual fabrication of very large and complex products, including automotive and aerospace structures and components.