Recent Progress in Droplet Structure Machining for Advanced Optics

The development of optical and photonic applications using soft-matter droplets holds great scientific and application importance. The machining of droplet structures is expected to drive breakthroughs in advancing frontier applications. This review highlights recent advancements in micro-nanofabric...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Micromachines (Basel) 2024-02, Vol.15 (3), p.337
Main Authors: Guo, Jin-Kun, Sandaruwan, W D N, Li, Jinwei, Ling, Jinzhong, Yuan, Ying, Liu, Xin, Li, Qiang, Wang, Xiaorui
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
3D printing
Design
droplet
Droplets
laser micro–nano-machining
Lasers
liquid crystal
Machining
Microfluidics
Nanofabrication
Optics
Phase separation
Photonics
Review
Self-assembly
Semiconductors
soft matter
Surface tension
Three dimensional printing
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Summary:The development of optical and photonic applications using soft-matter droplets holds great scientific and application importance. The machining of droplet structures is expected to drive breakthroughs in advancing frontier applications. This review highlights recent advancements in micro-nanofabrication techniques for soft-matter droplets, encompassing microfluidics, laser injection, and microfluidic 3D printing. The principles, advantages, and weaknesses of these technologies are thoroughly discussed. The review introduces the utilization of a phase separation strategy in microfluidics to assemble complex emulsion droplets and control droplet geometries by adjusting interfacial tension. Additionally, laser injection can take full advantage of the self-assembly properties of soft matter to control the spontaneous organization of internal substructures within droplets, thus providing the possibility of high-precision customized assembly of droplets. Microfluidic 3D printing demonstrates a 3D printing-based method for machining droplet structures. Its programmable nature holds promise for developing device-level applications utilizing droplet arrays. Finally, the review presents novel applications of soft-matter droplets in optics and photonics. The integration of processing concepts from microfluidics, laser micro-nano-machining, and 3D printing into droplet processing, combined with the self-assembly properties of soft materials, may offer novel opportunities for processing and application development.
ISSN:2072-666X
2072-666X
DOI:10.3390/mi15030337