Nanoscale 3D printed polymers paves way for low cost X-ray microscopes

X- microscopes have allowed researchers to visualize the micro world with high detail and resolution ever since its invention in 1951. Since then the technology has come a long way to provide insight into several nano and microscale based research. This incredible tool must be available in all the laboratories across the globe, but with a price tag with thousands of dollars, most laboratories just can’t afford them. One of the major reasons for the cost is the manufacturing of the sophisticated optics with nano-scale geometries. These nano-fabricated lenses alone cost several tens of thousands of Euros.

To resolve this issue, an allied team consisting of Modern Magnetic Systems and Physical intelligence departments at the Max-Planck-Institute for Intelligent systems in Stuttgart have come up with a new cost-effective method of manufacturing 3-D kinoforms- converging lenses which can focus X-ray. A kind of Nano-scale 3-D printing method was employed for this fabrication procedure.

The team used femtosecond pulsed infrared laser and an along with a photoresist, to polymerize by absorption of multiple infrared photons simultaneously to write structures having the size, little less than the wavelength of light. Nanoscale lenses with the precise geometry can have very high focusing efficiencies.

Producing this type of lens is all about selecting the right type of materials. This team chose a polymer called two-photon polymerization polymers for the fabrication methods due to its favorable X-ray optical properties which is very similar to Beryllium and diamond, yeah, that’s why the high cost.

Both Beryllium and Diamond are very hard to cut and shape at the nanoscale with the required 3- D profiles. Using the new 3D printing technology, the 2PP lenses can be manufactured in just over a minute which is why the cost of manufacturing is reduced so significantly.  The manufacturing utilizes a design formed by computer-aided design. Once designed the 3D printer having the IR laser fabricates it and the final stage is post-processing which involves the removal of non-polymerized photoresist and provides the structural qualities of the lens.

This type of manufacturing allows producing lenses with different X-ray manipulating properties. Therefore, the team went a step forward connected these lenses in  series to obtain a precise and optimized X-ray beam of imaging the samples. This technology is already up for patent, thanks to the research institutes of Max Planck society.

Jessie Marsh

biopolymers@memeetings.net

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