High-quality glass micro- and nanostructures by two-photon grayscale lithography (2GL®)

Two-photon grayscale lithography (2GL®), which is the two-photon polymerization (2PP) laser-printing with power modulated dynamic size control over the polymerized voxels, has demonstrated unprecedented combinations of pristine structure quality and high throughput. However, the technique has so far only been demonstrated to manufacture polymer microstructures. Herein, we present a 2GL® fabrication route to print optical-grade silica glass micro- & nanostructures from our recently introduced pre-glass resin system, which is based on polyhedral oligomeric silsesquioxane (POSS) chemistry. The POSS resin is shown to print pre-glass templates via 2GL® with sharply resolved features and minimal surface roughness at print speeds of hundreds of millimeters per second. Moderate thermal treatment at 650°C in air atmosphere drives-off the material’s organic parts and converts the templates to high-quality silica glass structures. We demonstrate a spectrum of glass benchmark structures with varying complexity and sizes and discuss adjusted chemical formulations for high-speed printing with minimal artefacts.