Parallel photopolymerisation with complex light patterns generated by diffractive optical elements.

Photopolymerisation by scanning a focused laser beam is a powerful method to build structures of arbitrary complexity with submicrometer resolution. We introduce parallel photopolymerisation to enhance the efficiency. Instead of multidimensional scanning of a single focus, the structure is generated simultaneously with diffractive patterns. We used fixed diffractive optical elements (DOEs), kinoforms, and Spatial Light Modulators (SLMs). The possibilities of photopolymerisation using SLM were investigated: the added flexibility using the programmable device is demonstrated. By using these DOEs, straight and helical cross shaped columns were produced with a single scan at a rate about an order of magnitude faster than by simple scanning. The produced helical structures could be rotated by optical tweezers.