Femtosecond laser rapid prototyping of nanoshells and suspending components towards microfluidic devices

Microfluidic researches are now resorting to advanced micro-nanoprocessing technologies for production of more functional "lab-on-a-chip'' systems. However, two-photon polymerization (TPP), a powerful designable micro-nanofabrication approach, has not been put to use on the exciting field, largely due to the difficulties in forming buried channels. Here, we solve the problem by TPP prototyping of nanoshells, for which the usage of the negative tone resin SU-8 is found critical. The fabrication efficiency improved by orders of magnitude, together with the prospect of integration of movable micro-mechanical and optical components into the chip would make TPP a promising enabling tool for the micro-analytical systems. Finally, a 25 mu m length functional microvalve in a microfluidic channel was rapidly realized and its "ON'' and "OFF'' states were tested.