Femtosecond Laser 3D Fabrication in Porous Glass for Micro- and Nanofluidic Applications

The creation of complex three-dimensional (3D) fluidic systems composed of hollow microand nanostructures embedded in transparent substrates has attracted significant attention from both scientific and applied research communities. However, it is by now still a formidable challenge to build 3D microand nanofluidic structures with arbitrary configurations using conventional planar lithographic fabrication methods. As a direct and maskless fabrication technique, femtosecond laser micromachining provides a straightforward approach for high-precision, spatially-selective, modification inside transparent materials through nonlinear optical absorption. In this paper, we demonstrate rapid fabrication of high-aspect-ratio microand/or nanofluidic structures with various 3D configurations by femtosecond laser direct writing in porous glass substrates. Based on this approach, we demonstrate several functional microand nanofluidic devices including a 3D passive microfluidic mixer, a capillary electrophoresis (CE) analysis chip, and an integrated micro-nanofluidic system for single DNA analysis. The possible mechanisms behind the formation of high-aspect-ratio microand nanochannels are also discussed. This technology offers new opportunities to develop novel 3D micro-nanofluidic systems for a variety of lab-on-a-chip applications.