High-quality micro/nanolens arrays (M/NLAs) are becoming irreplaceable components of various compact and miniaturized optical systems and functional devices. There is urgent requirement for a low-cost, high-efficiency, and high-precision technique to manufacture high-quality M/NLAs to meet their diverse and personalized applications. In this paper, we report the one-step maskless fabrication of M/NLAs via electrohydrodynamic jet (E-jet) printing. In order to get the best morphological parameters of M/NLAs, we adopted the stable cone-jet printing mode with optimized parameters instead of the micro dripping mode. The optical parameters of M/NLAs were analyzed and optimized, and they were influenced by the E-jet printing parameters, the wettability of the substrate, and the viscosity of the UV-curable adhesive. Thus, diverse and customized M/NLAs were obtained. Herein, we realized the fabrication of nanolens with a minimum diameter of 120 nm, and NLAs with different parameters were printed on a silicon substrate, a cantilever of atomic force microscopy probe, and single-layer graphene.

No abstract

Nanomanipulation provides high operating accuracy and has been successfully applied in many fields such as nanoparticle assembly, nanowire alignment, and semiconductor device manufacturing. However, because of the limits of optical diffraction, the use of nanomanipulation is challenged by a lack of visual feedback at the nanoscale, and thus, its efficiency is difficult to be improved. In this study, we developed a novel method of microlens-enhanced nanomanipulation capable of real-time super-resolution imaging. Nanomanipulation was performed using the atomic force microscopy (AFM) mechanism by coupling a microlens to an AFM probe, and optical imaging with a minimum characteristic size of 80 nm is realized by combining the microlens with the optical imaging system. Under the conditions of fluorescent illumination and white light illumination, nanomanipulations were achieved under real-time visual guidance for fluorescent nanoparticles with a diameter of 100 nm and silver nanowires with a diameter of 80 nm, respectively. This method enables the possibility of in situ observation and manipulation, which can potentially be used for biological samples.