Selective excitation through tapered silica fibers of fluorescent two-photon polymerized structures

Two-photon polymerization has emerged as a powerful tool to design complex three-dimensional microstructures for applications ranging from biology to nanophotonics. To broaden the application spectrum of such microstructures, different materials have been incorporated to the polymers, aiming at specific applications. In this paper we report the fabrication of microstructures containing rhodamine 610, which display strong fluorescence upon one- and two-photon excitation. The latter increases light-penetration depth and spatial selectivity of luminescence. We also demonstrate that by using silica submicrometric wires we were able to select individual microstructures to be excited, which could be explored for designing microstructure-based optical circuits.

FAPESP

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq)

CNPq

CAPES from Brazil

Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior (CAPES)

Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR) [FA9550-07-1-0374]

U.S. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR)