Fundamentals and Advances in Laser-Induced Transfer

Laser-induced transfer (LIT) is a well-established direct printing approach for fabricating structures with a feature size of ≤10 μm and various dimensions. LIT enables the digital printing of a broad range of materials, making it versatile for constructing functional micro/nanodevices. Although extensively studied, the technique is still in its paradigm stage due to the lack of mechanistic understanding, limiting its wide applications. In-depth understanding regarding the underlying mechanisms or physics of laser-matter interactions is key to the rational control of fabrication processes for LIT applications. Therefore, we organize this article presenting a review of LIT, with an emphasis on fundamental mechanisms of laser-induced forward and backward transfer. After a brief description of the primitive steps during the printing process, we place our main focus on the underlying physics of LIT including its principle and transfer dynamics, for example, different mechanisms of the transfer of micro/nano-dots from a solid or liquid donor film. Moreover, the latest advances in a broad range of LIT-based applications, such as three-dimensional laser printing, surface plasmon lattice resonance, sensing, and metasurfaces, are discussed. Finally, essential aspects and challenges of existing LIT techniques are outlined and future research perspectives based on electron-dynamics-control during LIT are provided.