Nanoscale precision of 3D polymerisation via polarisation control

A systematic analysis of polarization effects in a direct write femtosecond laser 3D lithography is presented. It is newly shown that coupling between linear polarization of the writing light electric field and temperature gradient can be used to fine-tune feature sizes in structuring of photoresists at a nanoscale. The vectorial Debye focusing is used to simulate polarization effects and a controlled variation up to 20% in the linewidth is shown experimentally for the identical axial extent of the polymerised features. The revealed mechanisms are relevant for a wide range of phenomena of light-matter interaction at tight focusing in laser-tweezers and in plasmonic or dielectric sub-wavelength focusing where strong light intensity and thermal gradients coexist.