Dr. Shaochen Chen

Nanomanufacturing represents the first and one of the most important steps in producing a nano-device or a nano-system. Current nano-fabrication technologies such as e-beam lithography are expensive and have low throughput. Conventional photolithography is fundamentally limited by optical diffraction. And traditional laser manufacturing has limited throughput due to its point-by-point scanning nature. It is the goal of our group to develop laser nanomanufacturing techniques with a nanometer resolution and high throughput. Recently, we have developed a massively parallel nano-patterning technique – “Nanomanufacturing using Near-Field Laser optics (Nano-NFL)”. By shining a laser beam through a monolayer of nanospheres on a solid substrate, parallel nano-structures have been produced on substrates such as silicon, glass, and a variety of polymers. To replace the monolayer of nanospheres, a new version of the Nano-NFL technique has also been developed. This technique employs a nano-fabricated quartz mold with an array of near-field tips. The reusability of the quartz mold makes the Nano-NFL technique industrially useful. Most recently, we have developed a new parallel nano-patterning technique – “Laser-assisted Photothermal Imprinting (Laser-PTI)” for the direct patterning of polymeric nanocomposites.

Research projects in this area have been supported by a CAREER award from the Nanomanufacturing Program and three regular grants from NSF. Our work has been cited by many journal publications in the field. Several technical magazines such as “Laser Focus World” and “Nanotechnologie News (Germany)” also reported on our research work. Applications of this area of research include:

• nanostructured silicon templates to grow isolated quantum dots
• nano-patterned glass surfaces for enhanced optical performance
• nano-texturing of metals for improved wear-resistance, fatigue-resistance
• direct-write of biomedical micro/nano-devices

Representative Publications:     Back to Top

A. Battula, S. Theppakuttai, and S. C. Chen, “Direct Parallel Nano-patterning of SiC by Laser Nanosphere Lithography”, Journal of Microlithography, Microfabrication, and Microsystems, Vol.5(1), pp. 011009, 2006.

A. J. Heltzel, S. Theppakuttai, J. R. Howell, and S. C. Chen, “Analytical and Experimental Investigation of Laser-Microsphere Interaction for Nanoscale Surface Modification”, Journal of Heat Transfer, Vol. 127, pp. 1231-1235, 2005.

C. A. Aguilar, Y. Lu, S. Mao, and S.C. Chen, “Micro-patterning of Biodegradable Polymers Using Ultraviolet and Femtosecond Lasers”, Biomaterials, Vol. 26 (36), pp. 7642-7649, 2005.

D.B. Shao, S. F. Li and S.C. Chen, “Near-field-enhanced, Mold-assisted, Parallel Direct Nanostructuring of a Gold Thin Film on Glass”, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 85 (22), pp. 5346-5348, 2004.

Y. Lu, D. B. Shao, and S. C. Chen, “Laser-assisted Photothermal Imprinting of Nanocomposites”, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 85 (9), pp.1604-1606, 2004.

S. Theppakuttai and S. C. Chen, “Submicron Ripple Formation on Glass Surface upon Laser-nanosphere Interaction”, Journal of Applied Physics, Vol. 95 (9), pp. 5049-5052, 2004.

S. Theppakuttai, D. B. Shao, and S. C. Chen, “Localized Laser Transmission Bonding for Microsystem Fabrication and Packaging”, Journal of Manufacturing Processes, Vol. 6 (1), pp. 24-31, 2004.

Y. Lu, S. Theppakuttai, and S. C. Chen, “Marangoni Effect in Nanosphere-enhanced Laser Nanopatterning of Silicon”, Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 82 (23), pp. 4143-4145, 2003.

Y. Lu and S. C. Chen, “Nanopatterning of a Silicon Surface by Near-field Enhanced Laser Irradiation,” Nanotechnology, Vol. 14 (5), pp. 505-508, 2003.

S. Theppakuttai and S. C. Chen, "Nanoscale Surface Modification of Glass Using a 1064 nm Pulsed Laser," Applied Physics Letters, Vol. 83 (4), pp. 758-760, 2003.