Two-photon reduction: a cost-effective method for fabrication of functional metallic nanostructures

Metallic nanostructures have underpinned plasmonic-based advanced photonic devices in a broad range of research fields over the last decade including physics, engineering, material science and bioscience. The key to realizing functional plasmonic resonances that can manipulate light at the optical frequencies relies on the creation of conductive metallic structures at the nanoscale with low structural defects. Currently, most plasmonic nanostructures are fabricated either by electron beam lithography (EBL) or by focused ion beam (FIB) milling, which are expensive, complicated and time-consuming. In comparison, the direct laser writing (DLW) technique has demonstrated its high spatial resolution and cost-effectiveness in three-dimensional fabrication of micro/nanostructures. Furthermore, the recent breakthroughs in superresolution nanofabrication and parallel writing have significantly advanced the fabrication resolution and throughput of the DLW method and made it one of the promising future nanofabrication technologies with low-cost and scalability. In this review, we provide a comprehensive summary of the state-of-the-art DLW fabrication technology for nanometer scale metallic structures. The fabrication mechanisms, different material choices, fabrication capability, including resolution, conductivity and structure surface smoothness, as well as the characterization methods and achievable devices for different applications are presented. In particular, the development trends of the field and the perspectives for future opportunities and challenges are provided at the end of the review. It has been demonstrated that the quality of the metallic structures fabricated using the DLW method is excellent compared with other methods providing a new and enabling platform for functional nanophotonic device fabrication.