TY - JOUR
T1 - One-photon three-dimensional printed fused silica glass with sub-micron features
AU - Li, Ziyong
AU - Jia, Yanwen
AU - Duan, Ke
AU - Xiao, Ran
AU - Qiao, Jingyu
AU - Liang, Shuyu
AU - Wang, Shixiang
AU - Chen, Juzheng
AU - Wu, Hao
AU - Lu, Yang
AU - Wen, Xiewen
N1 - Funding Information:
Y.L. thanks the Science Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality under the Shenzhen-Hong Kong-Macau Technology Research Program (Type C, SGDX2020110309300301), Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China, under the grant RFS2021-1S05 and C7074-23GF, Innovation and Technology Fund of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China under the grant GHP/221/21GD and PRP/054/22 F. X.W. Thanks Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, China under the grant 21206223, and PolyU Startup grant P0048050. X.W. also acknowledges the support from the University Research Facility in 3D Printing (U3DP) and State Key Laboratory of Ultra-precision Machining Technology (SKL-UPMT) of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University.
Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2024.
PY - 2024/3/27
Y1 - 2024/3/27
N2 - The applications of silica-based glass have evolved alongside human civilization for thousands of years. High-precision manufacturing of three-dimensional (3D) fused silica glass objects is required in various industries, ranging from everyday life to cutting-edge fields. Advanced 3D printing technologies have emerged as a potent tool for fabricating arbitrary glass objects with ultimate freedom and precision. Stereolithography and femtosecond laser direct writing respectively achieved their resolutions of ~50 μm and ~100 nm. However, fabricating glass structures with centimeter dimensions and sub-micron features remains challenging. Presented here, our study effectively bridges the gap through engineering suitable materials and utilizing one-photon micro-stereolithography (OμSL)-based 3D printing, which flexibly creates transparent and high-performance fused silica glass components with complex, 3D sub-micron architectures. Comprehensive characterizations confirm that the final material is stoichiometrically pure silica with high quality, defect-free morphology, and excellent optical properties. Homogeneous volumetric shrinkage further facilitates the smallest voxel, reducing the size from 2.0 × 2.0 × 1.0 μm3 to 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.5 μm3. This approach can be used to produce fused silica glass components with various 3D geometries featuring sub-micron details and millimetric dimensions. This showcases promising prospects in diverse fields, including micro-optics, microfluidics, mechanical metamaterials, and engineered surfaces.
AB - The applications of silica-based glass have evolved alongside human civilization for thousands of years. High-precision manufacturing of three-dimensional (3D) fused silica glass objects is required in various industries, ranging from everyday life to cutting-edge fields. Advanced 3D printing technologies have emerged as a potent tool for fabricating arbitrary glass objects with ultimate freedom and precision. Stereolithography and femtosecond laser direct writing respectively achieved their resolutions of ~50 μm and ~100 nm. However, fabricating glass structures with centimeter dimensions and sub-micron features remains challenging. Presented here, our study effectively bridges the gap through engineering suitable materials and utilizing one-photon micro-stereolithography (OμSL)-based 3D printing, which flexibly creates transparent and high-performance fused silica glass components with complex, 3D sub-micron architectures. Comprehensive characterizations confirm that the final material is stoichiometrically pure silica with high quality, defect-free morphology, and excellent optical properties. Homogeneous volumetric shrinkage further facilitates the smallest voxel, reducing the size from 2.0 × 2.0 × 1.0 μm3 to 0.8 × 0.8 × 0.5 μm3. This approach can be used to produce fused silica glass components with various 3D geometries featuring sub-micron details and millimetric dimensions. This showcases promising prospects in diverse fields, including micro-optics, microfluidics, mechanical metamaterials, and engineered surfaces.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85188907562&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1038/s41467-024-46929-x
DO - 10.1038/s41467-024-46929-x
M3 - Journal article
AN - SCOPUS:85188907562
SN - 2041-1723
VL - 15
JO - Nature Communications
JF - Nature Communications
IS - 1
M1 - 2689
ER -