Metamaterial fabrication using combined multiphoton polymerization and optical trapping

Askari, Meisam (2017) Metamaterial fabrication using combined multiphoton polymerization and optical trapping. PhD thesis, University of Nottingham.

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Abstract

Metamaterials are manmade structures with unique properties that cannot be found in nature. The metamaterial properties are structure dependent and enabled by the subwavelength periodic structure of the metamaterial. The goal of this thesis was to utilize an Additive Manufacturing (AM) technique to fabricate periodic metamaterial structures. Multi-Photon Polymerization (MPP) is a powerful AM method that has the capability to manufactures complex micro-scale 3D structures using ultra-short laser pulses. Typically, MPP has been used to manufacture micron-scale components in photopolymer materials. However, the development of sub-micron scale processes that can produce components from multiple materials within a single manufacturing step would be advantageous and open the potential to include different materials that can be manipulated and embedded within structures with sub-micron feature sizes.

A combined MPP and Optical Trapping (OT) setup was proposed to achieve the capability of fabricating periodic sub-micron structures with multiple materials. Firstly, a modular MPP system was designed, assemble and tested. Secondly, a bespoke OT setup was assembled and tested with a variety of particles. Thirdly, the single material system was combined with an optical trapping (OT) setup to independently manipulate microparticles in the x, y and z planes. An afocal lens arrangement was employed to reduce the gap produced by aberrations in the system. The assembled combined MPP and OT setup has the capability to embed trapped particles in MPP fabricated structures regardless of the trapping and polymerization wavelength and produce repeatable results for different particles and polymers. The engineering innovation in the design of the combined MPP and OT setup increase the capabilities and available materials for this system.

To test the capacity of the system particles were transported using OT, and then fixed to a well-ordered 3D matrix and encapsulated with polymer using MPP, thereby demonstrating the ability of the system as a microscale multimaterial fabrication techniques.

Item Type: Thesis (University of Nottingham only) (PhD)
Supervisors: Tuck, Christopher J.
Wildman, Ricky D.
Keywords: Two-photon polymerization, Optical trapping, Metamaterials, Multi-photon polymerization, Additive manufacturing, 3D printing
Subjects: T Technology > TS Manufactures
Faculties/Schools: UK Campuses > Faculty of Engineering
Item ID: 48142
Depositing User: Askari, Meisam
Date Deposited: 13 Dec 2017 04:40
Last Modified: 14 Dec 2017 09:46
URI: https://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/id/eprint/48142

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