29 May 2026

Grayscale projection two-photon lithography reports 55 nm nanowires and 1.7 billion voxels per second

Photonics and optical computingAdvanced manufacturing
AI illustration · Illustrative scene, not a photograph of the specific device or experiment.

What was demonstrated

Kim and Saha (Georgia Institute of Technology) report grayscale projection two-photon lithography. Despite using a binary mask, the method projects more than 15,000 focal spots, each with independently tunable intensity. The abstract says the authors demonstrated printing nanowires as thin as 55 nm and achieved rates of 1.7 billion voxels per second and 215 mm³ per hour. The abstract also describes rapid 3D printing with a single femtosecond pulse per layer. The abstract does not give the resin, laser wavelength or specific exposure parameters.

Why it matters

The abstract links tuning the intensity of each focal spot to suppressing proximity effects and compensating for uneven illumination and stitching artifacts. The authors present the work as a route to ultrafast and precise nanoscale 3D printing. If the reported rates hold across other materials and part sizes, the approach could make fine nanoscale printing faster.

Caveats

  • The rates (1.7 billion voxels per second and 215 mm³ per hour) are the authors' own figures from the abstract. The abstract does not compare them with other two-photon printers, so they cannot be compared directly with other systems.
  • The 55 nm figure refers to nanowires in the demonstrated structures. The abstract does not show the same resolution across other shapes, resins or part sizes.
  • Commercial availability, resin supply and industrial reproducibility are not addressed in the abstract.
  • The full paper was not read: the Nature Communications page redirected to a sign-in page. The figures were checked against the abstract text on the OSTI record, and the title, authors and online date against Crossref metadata for the DOI.

Technology profiles

Sources

  1. peer reviewed paper
    Grayscale projection two-photon lithography using sub-diffraction motifs for ultrafast and precise nanoscale 3D printing
    Harnjoo Kim, Sourabh K. Saha. Nature Communications, 29 May 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73782-x.
  2. other
    Grayscale projection two-photon lithography using sub-diffraction motifs for ultrafast and precise nanoscale 3D printing
    Harnjoo Kim, Sourabh K. Saha. U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI), 28 May 2026. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-026-73782-x.

Last reviewed 21 Oct 2026.