Direct Print of Cyanobacteria Cells Colloidal Suspension by Optical Vortex Laser Induced Forward Transfer

Non-contact printing techniques, such as nozzle-based inkjet printing and laser induced forward transfer (LIFT) techniques, enable the micron-scale direct print of variety of donor materials, and thus, they have seen tremendous interest in a variety of fields, such as electronics, photonics, and biotechnology [1]. In particular, the LIFT has gained much attention as a nozzle-free, and cost-effective approach that eliminates all the negative effects (a narrow bioink viscosity range and a fairly low cell viability) associated with nozzles [2]. However, the conventional LIFT using a Gaussian beam with a planer wavefront is still struggling with the degradation of spatial resolution at a long working distance between a donor material and a printed receiver substrate [3].