Femtosecond laser microstructuring for polymeric lab-on-chips

This paper provides an overview of femtosecond laser
microfabrication in polymeric materials, with emphasis
on lab-on-chip applications. Due to the nonlinear interaction
of femtosecond laser pulses with polymers, laserinduced
modifications are localized to the focal volume,
enabling high resolution patterning in 3D. Femtosecond
laser microfabrication offers unmatched versatility in fabricating
surface microchannels and diffractive optics by
means of laser ablation, buried optical waveguides and
micro-optics through refractive index modification and
complex 3D microstructures in photoresists by twophoton
polymerization. Femtosecond laser microfabrication
technology opens the door to fabricating integrated
lab-on-chip devices with a single tool.