Digital resonant laser printing: Bridging nanophotonic science and consumer products

Nanophotonics research relies heavily on state-of-the-art and costly nano and microfabrication technologies. While such technologies are fairly mature, their implementation in large-scale manufacturing of photonic devices is not straightforward. This is a major roadblock for integrating nanophotonic functionalities, such as flat optics or high definition, ink-free color printing, into real life applications. In particular, optical metasurfaces – nanoscale textured surfaces with engineered optical properties – hold great potential for a myriad of such applications. Digital laser printing has recently been introduced as a low-cost lithography solution, which allows the fabrication of high-resolution features on optical substrates. By exploiting resonant opto-thermal modification of individual nanoscale elements, laser printing can achieve nanometer-sized resolution. In addition, the concept of digital resonant laser printing at the nanoscale supports mass-customization and may therefore convert nanophotonic science into everyday consumer products.