Fluctuation limitations on the voxel minimal size at laser nanopolymerization

Abstract

Laser (or two photon) nanopolymerization is an effective way of producing 3D polymeric submi cron structures. The mainstream in developing this technology is improvement of the spatial resolution of nano objects. Fluctuation induced inhomogeneities are studied as the main physical reason limiting the spa tial resolution of polymeric structures obtained by nanopolymerization. Typically, complex polymeric struc tures have the form of a raster composed of many elements, voxels, about 100 nm across. Monte Carlo sim ulation of a spherically symmetric polymeric voxel is carried out. It is shown that, when the voxel size becomes less than critical, the position and size of a voxel vary from realization to realization (become irre producible). This effect is attributed to the disappearance of the voxel's core-part of a voxel that has mac roscopic properties. Irreproducible formation of the single voxels may lead to distortions of the fine features of complex microstructures and, hence, to a deterioration of the spatial resolution. Estimates are made of the minimal size of voxels that can be reproducibly produced in real laser experiments.