Sub-100 nm material processing and imaging with a sub-15 femtosecond laser scanning microscope

Low mean powers of 1-10 mW are sufficient for material nanoprocessing when using femtosecond laser microscopes. In particular, near infrared 12 fs laser pulses at peak TW/cm(2) intensities, picojoule pulse energies, and 85 MHz repetition rate have been employed. Three-dimensional two-photon lithography as well as direct multiphoton ablation have been performed. Subwavelength sub-100 nm cuts have been realized in photoresists, silicon wafers, glass, polymers, metals, and biological targets. When reducing the mean power to the microwatt range, nondestructive two-photon imaging was performed with the same setup taking advantage of the broad laser emission spectrum. Multiphoton microscopes based on low-cost ultracompact sub-20 fs laser sources may become novel nonlinear optical tools for highly precise nanoprocessing and two-photon imaging. (C) 2012 Laser Institute of America.