Direct laser writing of ceramic materials

Abstract

Direct laser writing of ceramic microstructures were realized by photo-reduction based assembling of fine particles. When femtosecond laser is focused into dilute AgNO3 solution with dispersed ceramic nanoparticles, hierarchical microstructures, consisting of photo-reductive Ag and cladding layer of densely packed nanoparticles, were formed near the focal volume. Thickness of the clad layer was as large as approximately 2 μm in spite of nanoparticle diameter of 20 nm. This phenomenon allows us to make continuous micropatterns of ceramic materials only by translation of laser focus. We could choose a variety of ceramic materials as the clad layer, including SiO2, TiO2, apatite, ITO and so on regardless of their photosensitivity. Various micropatterns were formed not only on planar substrates but also curved 3D surfaces.