Electrofluidics fabricated by space-selective metallization in glass microfluidic structures using femtosecond laser direct writing.

Space-selective metallization of the inside of glass microfluidic structures using femtosecond laser direct-write ablation followed by electroless plating is demonstrated. Femtosecond laser direct writing followed by thermal treatment and successive chemical etching allows us to fabricate three-dimensional microfluidic structures inside photosensitive glass. Then, femtosecond laser ablation followed by electroless metal plating enables flexible deposition of patterned metal films on desired locations of not only the top and bottom walls but also the sidewalls of fabricated microfluidic structures. A volume writing scheme for femtosecond laser irradiation inducing homogeneous ablation on the sidewalls of microfluidic structures is proposed for sidewall metallization. The developed technique is used to fabricate electrofluidics in which microelectric components are integrated into glass microchannels. The fabricated electrofluidics are applied to control the temperature of liquid samples in the microchannels for the enhancement of chemical reactions and to manipulate the movement of biological samples in the microscale space.