Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting
Abstract Two-photon absorption (TPA) has been widely applied for three-dimensional imaging and nanoprinting; however, the efficiency of TPA imaging and nanoprinting using laser scanning techniques is limited by its trade-off to reach high resolution. Here, we unveil a concept, few-photon irradiated...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Nature Portfolio
2025-03-01
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| Series: | Nature Communications |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57390-9 |
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| author | Zi-Xin Liang Yuan-Yuan Zhao Jing-Tao Chen Xian-Zi Dong Feng Jin Mei-Ling Zheng Xuan-Ming Duan |
| author_facet | Zi-Xin Liang Yuan-Yuan Zhao Jing-Tao Chen Xian-Zi Dong Feng Jin Mei-Ling Zheng Xuan-Ming Duan |
| author_sort | Zi-Xin Liang |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Two-photon absorption (TPA) has been widely applied for three-dimensional imaging and nanoprinting; however, the efficiency of TPA imaging and nanoprinting using laser scanning techniques is limited by its trade-off to reach high resolution. Here, we unveil a concept, few-photon irradiated TPA, supported by a spatiotemporal model based on the principle of wave-particle duality of light. This model describes the precise time-dependent mechanism of TPA under ultralow photon irradiance with a single tightly focused femtosecond laser pulse. We demonstrate that a feature size of 26 nm (1/20 λ) and a pattern period of 0.41 λ with a laser wavelength of 517 nm can be achieved by performing digital optical projection nanolithography under few-photon irradiation using the in-situ multiple exposure technique, improving printing efficiency by 5 orders of magnitude. We show deeper insights into the TPA mechanism and encourage the exploration of potential applications for TPA in nanoprinting and nanoimaging. |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj-art-c966e4e31d50401d88a96315ae957b0c |
| institution | DOAJ |
| issn | 2041-1723 |
| language | English |
| publishDate | 2025-03-01 |
| publisher | Nature Portfolio |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Nature Communications |
| spelling | doaj-art-c966e4e31d50401d88a96315ae957b0c2025-08-20T03:04:20ZengNature PortfolioNature Communications2041-17232025-03-011611910.1038/s41467-025-57390-9Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprintingZi-Xin Liang0Yuan-Yuan Zhao1Jing-Tao Chen2Xian-Zi Dong3Feng Jin4Mei-Ling Zheng5Xuan-Ming Duan6Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan UniversityGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan UniversityGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan UniversityLaboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of SciencesLaboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of SciencesLaboratory of Organic NanoPhotonics and CAS Key Laboratory of Bio-Inspired Materials and Interfacial Science, Technical Institute of Physics and Chemistry, Chinese Academy of SciencesGuangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Optical Fiber Sensing and Communications, Institute of Photonics Technology, Jinan UniversityAbstract Two-photon absorption (TPA) has been widely applied for three-dimensional imaging and nanoprinting; however, the efficiency of TPA imaging and nanoprinting using laser scanning techniques is limited by its trade-off to reach high resolution. Here, we unveil a concept, few-photon irradiated TPA, supported by a spatiotemporal model based on the principle of wave-particle duality of light. This model describes the precise time-dependent mechanism of TPA under ultralow photon irradiance with a single tightly focused femtosecond laser pulse. We demonstrate that a feature size of 26 nm (1/20 λ) and a pattern period of 0.41 λ with a laser wavelength of 517 nm can be achieved by performing digital optical projection nanolithography under few-photon irradiation using the in-situ multiple exposure technique, improving printing efficiency by 5 orders of magnitude. We show deeper insights into the TPA mechanism and encourage the exploration of potential applications for TPA in nanoprinting and nanoimaging.https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57390-9 |
| spellingShingle | Zi-Xin Liang Yuan-Yuan Zhao Jing-Tao Chen Xian-Zi Dong Feng Jin Mei-Ling Zheng Xuan-Ming Duan Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting Nature Communications |
| title | Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting |
| title_full | Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting |
| title_fullStr | Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting |
| title_full_unstemmed | Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting |
| title_short | Two-photon absorption under few-photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting |
| title_sort | two photon absorption under few photon irradiation for optical nanoprinting |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-025-57390-9 |
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