UCLA

This doctoral work aims to advance two-photon lithography (TPL) using a hybrid approach that integrates TPL with microfluidics (MF) and optical tweezers (OT) to enable unprecedented microstructures. The hybrid additive manufacturing system (i.e., when two or more systems act on the same site simultaneously or sequentially) developed in this work is able to automatically fabricate complex three-dimensional microstructures with multi-material designs and nanoscale resolution. The Ph.D. research communicated in this dissertation focuses on exploiting the full potential of TPL to provide unparalleled microfabrication capabilities by pursuing: (1) Scanning two-photon continuous flow lithography (STP-CFL); TPL is supplemented with microfluidics to allow for high throughput fabrication of 3D arbitrary-shaped microparticles with multi-material designs. (2) Simultaneous printing and deformation of microsystems via TPL and holographic optical tweezers to create microstructures with embedded strain energy. (3) Automated 3D engineered microgranular crystal fabrication, where an advanced hybrid approach is realized by integrating TPL with both MF and OT.