Nanofiber Plasmon Enhancement of Two-Photon Polymerization Induced by Femtosecond Laser

The nanofiber plasmon effect on the two-photon polymerization (2PP) induced by a femtosecond laser is reported for the first time in this paper. The nanofibers were generated using a femtosecond laser, which was also used to construct microfeatures through two-photon polymerization of a nanofiber dispersed polymer resin. Nanofiber plasmon resonant effect greatly enhances local field intensities, resulting in increased particle scattering cross sections. This leads to a drastic enhancement of two-photon-like absorption processes, allowing much lower incident radiation intensities to be used. The huge enhancements in local field intensity due to nanofiber plasmon resonances have been shown to lower the required intensity for 2PP by factors of 10 or more.