Low Power, Scalable Nanofabrication via Photon Upconversion

Abstract: Micro- and nanoscale fabrication, which enables precise construction of intricate three-dimensional structures, is of foundational importance for advancing innovation in plasmonics, nanophotonics, and biomedical applications. However, scaling fabrication to industrially relevant levels remains a significant challenge. We demonstrate that triplet-triplet annihilation upconversion (TTA-UC) offers a unique opportunity to increase fabrication speeds and scalability of micro- and nanoscale 3D structures. Due to its nonlinearity and low power requirements, TTA-UC enables localized polymerization with nanoscale resolutions while simultaneously printing millions of voxels per second through optical parallelization using off-the-shelf light-emitting diodes and digital micromirror devices. Our system design and component integration empower fabrication with a minimum lateral feature size down to 230 nm and speeds up to 112 million voxels per second at a power of 7.0 nW per voxel. This combination of high resolution and fast print speed demonstrates that TTA-UC is a significant advancement in nanofabrication technique, evidenced by the fabrication of hydrophobic nanostructures on a square-centimeter scale, paving the way for industrial nanomanufacturing.