Femtosecond laser direct writing sericin-based nanocomposites into intrinsically soft wearable micro-/nano-electronics.

Intrinsically flexible micro-/nano-electronics are increasingly in demand for wearable/implantable bio-machine interfacing optical electronics and soft robots. In this work, we developed intrinsically flexible and soft wearable micro-/nano-electronics by femtosecond laser direct writing sericin-based nanocomposites. Sericin was used as the biomacromolecular reductant to photo-reduce metal ions into nanoparticles and the molecular matrix for nano-compositing.

In Situ Mineralizing Spinning of Strong and Tough Silk Fibers for Optical Waveguides.

Biopolymer-based optical waveguides with low-loss light guiding performance and good biocompatibility are highly desired for applications in biomedical photonic devices. Herein, we report the preparation of silk optical fiber waveguides through bioinspired in situ mineralizing spinning, which possess excellent mechanical properties and low light loss. Natural silk fibroin was used as the main precursor for the wet spinning of the regenerated silk fibroin (RSF) fibers.

Modification of Frictional Properties of Hydrogel Surface via Laser Ablated Topographical Micro-Textures.

Hydrogels and biological cartilage tissues are highly similar in structure and composition due to their unique characteristics such as high-water content and low friction coefficients. The introduction of hydrogel cartilage can effectively reduce the friction coefficient and wear coefficient of the original bone joint and the implanted metal bone joint (generally titanium alloy or stainless steel), which is considered as a perfect replacement material for artificial articular cartilage. How to accurately regulate the local tribological characteristics of hydrogel artificial cartilage according to patient weight and bone shape is one of the important challenges in the current clinical application field of medical hydrogels.

Femtosecond Laser Direct Writing of Optical Overpass.

With the rapid increase in information density, problems such as signal crosstalk and crossover restrict the further expansion of chip integration levels and packaging density. Based on this, a novel waveguide structure-photonic jumper wire-is proposed here to break through the technical restrictions in waveguide crossing and parallel line wrapping, which hinder the integration of photonic chips. Furthermore, we fabricated the optical overpass to realize a more complex on-chip optical cross-connection.

Smart bio-gel optofluidic Mach-Zehnder interferometers multiphoton-lithographically customized with chemo-mechanical-opto transduction and bio-triggered degradation.

Stimulus-responsive optical polymers, especially gels, are enabling new-concept energy-transducing "smart" optics. Full exploitation of their molecule-derived tuning and integration with traditional micro/nano-optics/optoelectronics rely on the implementation of devices by advanced "intelligent" micro/nano-manufacturing technologies, especially photolithographies with wide compatibility. In light of the increasing need for an organic combination of smart optical materials and digital micro/nano-manufacturing, novel "smart" optical micro-switches, namely, stimulus-actuated Mach-Zehnder interferometers as a proof-of-concept demonstration, were prototyped with protein-based hydrogels via aqueous multiphoton femtosecond laser direct writing (FsLDW).

Bioinspired Zoom Compound Eyes Enable Variable-Focus Imaging.

Natural compound eyes provide the inspiration for developing artificial optical devices that feature a large field of view (FOV). However, the imaging ability of artificial compound eyes is generally based on the large number of ommatidia. The lack of a tunable imaging mechanism significantly limits the practical applications of artificial compound eyes, for instance, distinguishing targets at different distances.

Protein-Based Three-Dimensional Whispering-Gallery-Mode Micro-Lasers with Stimulus-Responsiveness.

For the first time, proteins, a promising biocompatible and functionality-designable biomacromolecule material, acted as the host material to construct three-dimensional (3D) whispering-gallery-mode (WGM) microlasers by multiphoton femtosecond laser direct writing (FsLDW). Protein/Rhodamine B (RhB) composite biopolymer was used as optical gain medium innovatively. By adopting high-viscosity aqueous protein ink and optimized scanning mode, protein-based WGM microlasers were customized with exquisite true 3D geometry and smooth morphology.