Two-Photon Direct Laser Writing Beyond the Diffraction Limit Using the Nanopositioning and Nanomeasuring Machine

Since the first realization of two-photon direct laser writing(DLW)in Maruo et al.(Opt Lett 22:132-134,1997),the manufacturing using direct laser writing techniques spread out in many laboratories all over the world.Photosensitive materials with different material properties open a new field for micro-and nanofabrication.The achievable structuring resolution using this technique is reported to be sub-100 nm(Paz et al.in J.Laser Appl.24:042004,2012),while a smallest linewidth of 25 nm could be shown in Tan et al.(Appl Phys Lett 90:071106,2007).In our approach,the combination of DLW with the nanopositioning and nanomeasuring machine NMM-1 offers an improvement of the technique from the engineering side regarding the ultra-precise positioning(Weidenfeller et al.in Adv Fabr Technol Micro/Nano Opt Photon Ⅺ 10544:105440E,2018).One big benefit besides the high positioning resolution of 0.1 nm is offered by the positioning range of 25 mm×25 mm×5 mm(Jager et al.in Technisches Messen 67:319-323,2000;Manske et al.in Meas Sci Technol 18:520-527,2007).Thus,a trans-scale fabrication without any stitching or combination of different positioning systems is necessary.The immense synergy between the highly precise positioning and the DLW is demonstrated by the realization of resist lines and trenches whose center-to-center distance undergoes the modified diffraction limit for two-photon processes.The precise positioning accuracy enables a defined distance between illuminated lines.Hence,with a comparable huge width of the trenches of 1.655|im due to a low effective numerical aperture of 0.16,a resist line of 30 nm between two written trenches could be achieved.Although the interrelationships for achieving such narrow trenches have not yet been clarified,much smaller resist lines and trench widths are possible with this approach in the near future.

Tip-and Laser-based 3D Nanofabrication in Extended Macroscopic Working Areas

The field of optical lithography is subject to intense research and has gained enormous improvement.However,the effort necessary for creating structures at the size of 20 nm and below is considerable using conventional technologies.This effort and the resulting financial requirements can only be tackled by few global companies and thus a paradigm change for the semiconductor industry is conceivable:custom design and solutions for specific applications will dominate future development(Fritze in:Panning EM,Liddle JA(eds)Novel patterning technologies.International society for optics and photonics.SPIE,Bellingham,2021.https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2593229).For this reason,new aspects arise for future lithography,which is why enormous effort has been directed to the development of alternative fabrication technologies.Yet,the technologies emerging from this process,which are promising for coping with the current resolution and accuracy challenges,are only demonstrated as a proof-of-concept on a lab scale of several square micrometers.Such scale is not adequate for the requirements of modern lithography;therefore,there is the need for new and alternative cross-scale solutions to further advance the possibilities of unconventional nanotechnologies.Similar challenges arise because of the technical progress in various other fields,realizing new and unique functionalities based on nanoscale effects,e.g.,in nanophotonics,quantum computing,energy harvesting,and life sciences.Experimental platforms for basic research in the field of scale-spanning nanomeasuring and nanofabrication are necessary for these tasks,which are available at the Technische Universitiit Ilmenau in the form of nanopositioning and nanomeasuring(NPM)machines.With this equipment,the limits of technical structurability are explored for high-performance tip-based and laser-based processes for enabling real 3D nanofabrication with the highest precision in an adequate working range of several thousand cubic millimeters.