Abstract
The growing demand for advanced materials, miniaturized devices and integrated microsystems calls for the reliable fabrication of complex, multiscale, three-dimensional (3D) architectures, a need increasingly addressed through light-based and laser-based processes. However, owing to the field-of-view (FOV) limitations of conventional imaging optics, existing 3D laser nanofabrication techniques face fundamental challenges in throughput, proximity error and stitching defects on the path to scaling. Here we present a scalable 3D nanofabrication platform that uses a metalens-generated focal spot array to parallelize two-photon lithography (TPL)1 beyond centimetre-scale write field areas. Metalenses are ideally suited for producing submicron-scale focal spots for high-throughput nanolithography, as they uniquely feature large numerical apertures (NAs), immersion media compatibility and large-scale manufacturability. We experimentally demonstrate a printing system that uses a 12-cm2 metalens array to produce more than 120,000 cooperative focal spots, corresponding to a throughput exceeding 108 voxels s−1. By programmatically patterning the focal spot array using a spatial light modulator (SLM), an adaptive parallel printing strategy is developed for precise greyscale linewidth modulation and choreographed printing of semiperiodic and fully aperiodic 3D geometries. We demonstrate parallel printing of replicated microstructures (>50 M microparticles per day), centimetre-scale 3D architectures with feature sizes down to 113 nm, and photonic and mechanical metamaterials. This work demonstrates the potential of 3D nanolithography towards wafer-scale production, showing how TPL could be used at scale for applications in microelectronics2, biomedicine3, quantum technology4 and high-energy laser targets5,6.
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Data availability
All data are available in the main text, Methods or in the Supplementary Information. Other information related to this study is available from the corresponding author on request.
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Acknowledgements
X.X. and J.A.F. acknowledge financial support from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Lab Directed Research and Development Program (LDRD: 22-ERD-004) for funding most of the project and making the research possible. S.G. acknowledges financial support from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Lab Directed Research and Development Program (LDRD: 25-LW-103) for supporting the final stage of the project. Work at LLNL was performed under the auspices of the U.S. Department of Energy by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory under contract DE-AC52-07NA27344. J.A.F. acknowledges further support from the Packard Foundation under grant number 2016-65132 and the National Science Foundation under award number 2103721. W.Z. and C.D. acknowledge support from the Army Research Office (MURI ARO W911NF-22-2-0109).
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Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
S.G. and X.X. designed and built the printing system and performed the printing and the characterization experiments. C.M. designed, modelled and fabricated the metalens, with help from T.M., A.A. and Y.Z. A.G.I. generated the printing toolpaths, performed mechanical testing and performed simulation for the octet and Kelvin lattices, with help from X.X. and S.G. D.T.-P. and S.S. developed the laser patterning function with help from T.U.T. and performed printing experiments. M.M.-Y. developed the photoresin with help from S.H. S.S., S.G. and X.X. developed the algorithm for printing arbitrary structures. W.C. designed and characterized the THz metamaterial. W.Z., C.D. and X.X. designed the chainmail lattice. W.Z., H.Y. and Z.Z. performed the simulation for the chainmail lattice. S.H. and C.M. modelled the proximity effect. X.X., J.A.F. and T.U.T. conceived the study. S.G. and X.X. prepared the manuscript, with revisions from all authors.
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A US patent and three US patent applications related to this work have been filed, with S.G., S.S., A.G.I., D.T.-P., T.U.T. and X.X. as co-inventors. The authors declare no other competing interests.
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Extended data figures and tables
Extended Data Fig. 1 Metalens design and fabrication.
a, Unit cell of geometric-phase meta-atom. Λ: period, 300 nm; l: 190 nm; w: 111.0 nm; h: 785.0 nm. b, Sweeps of rectangle side lengths. Top, phase difference between x and y polarized responses. Bottom, transmission. The red boxes indicate optimal design with π phase difference and near-unity transmission. c, Photo of the 50 × 50, NA 1.0 metalens array (lens size: 200 µm, array size: 10 × 10 mm2) and the focal spots of lenses (in air) under an optical microscope. Scale bar, 500 µm. d,e, SEM images of the top view and the tilted view of the nanopillars. Scale bars, 1 μm. f, Cross-section SEM view of a test wafer, in which the silicon nanostructures are embedded in HSQ. Two layers of HSQ were spun on, with rapid thermal annealing applied after each layer. Gaps between the nanopillars, which are smaller than 100 nm, are fully filled without trapped air. Scale bar, 1 μm. g, Photo of the 370 × 350, NA 0.8 metalens array (lens size: 100 µm, array size: 37 × 35 mm2). h, Zoomed-in optical image of the metalenses. Scale bar, 1 mm.
Extended Data Fig. 2 Metalens-based TPL system.
a,b, Schematic of the metalens-based TPL system and a zoomed-in view showing the printing of gradient structures with patterned laser beam. HWP1, HWP2: half-wave plates; PBS1, PBS2: polarization beam splitters; QWP1, QWP2: quarter-wave plates; L1, L2, L3: lenses; BE: beam expander; OBJ: objective lens; BS: beam splitter. c, Photo of the optical set-up.
Extended Data Fig. 3 Principle of phase-to-amplitude modulation using a liquid-crystal SLM.
A vertically polarized laser is reflected by a polarization beam splitter (PBS) and modulated by a quarter-wave plate (QWP). Then, the laser is incident onto the liquid-crystal SLM, modulated pixel by pixel within the liquid-crystal orientation plane. After that, the laser passes through the QWP and the PBS to become an intensity-modulated laser beam and is finally projected onto the metalens array. The 4f system between the phase-to amplitude modulation subsystem and the metalens is omitted here for simple illustration purposes. An example of modulating the laser intensity with SLM pixel value is shown in the chart in the bottom-right corner. a.u., arbitrary units.
Extended Data Fig. 4 Gallery of 3-cm 3D architectures with sub-micrometre resolution.
a, A LLNL logo with some focal spots turned off. A central processing unit chip is placed underneath for size reference. b, LLNL logos and a Stanford logo. A 6-inch wafer is placed underneath for size reference.
Extended Data Fig. 5 Measurement of subdiffraction linewidths.
a, SEM image of a large array of suspended nanowires printed by a uniformity-corrected system (metalens NA: 1.0). b, A survey of lateral and axial linewidths by randomly selecting lines printed by different metalenses (standard deviation = 16.5 nm (lateral) and 15.4 nm (axial), n = 10). c, Lateral measurements for randomly selected nanowires. d, Axial measurements for randomly selected nanowires.
Extended Data Fig. 6 Greyscale printing by means of SLM tuning.
a,b, SEM images of a line array printed by sweeping the SLM phase value (metalens NA: 1.0). Specific SLM values are not listed owing to different settings for each metalens. c,d, Measurements of linewidths in a showing tunable voxel size at the subdiffraction regime and stable voxel size at the diffraction-limited regime. e,f, SEM images of 3D subdiffraction features. The measured lateral and axial linewidth are 316.4 nm and 1.876 µm, respectively.
Extended Data Fig. 7 Structural compression and throughput scaling.
a, Definition of the compression factor of a structure. As an example, the structure is divided into 5 × 5 substructures. Then, all of the substructures are overlaid to obtain the compressed structure. The stage scans over the entire compressed structure with active focal spot modulation to print the desired structure. It can be derived that the compression factor is determined by the average density and the overlaid density of the structure. b, Chart showing the effective fabrication speed with varying compression factors. The near-term scaling of this work is discussed in section ‘Discussion on the current limit and near-term scaling of the fabrication throughput’ in the Supplementary Information.
Extended Data Fig. 8 Images for the tensile experiments of an octet, a Kelvin and a chainmail lattice.
a, Fractured octet lattice. Scale bar, 1 mm. b, Zoomed-in crack frames for the octet lattice. D: displacement. c, SEM image of the fractured octet near the notch. d, Fractured Kelvin lattice. Scale bar, 1 mm. e, Zoomed-in crack frames for the Kelvin lattice. f, SEM image of the fractured Kelvin lattice near the notch. g, Crack frames for the chainmail lattice. h, Fractured chainmail lattice. Scale bar, 1 mm. i, SEM images of the fractured chainmail lattice near the notch.
Extended Data Fig. 9 Hybrid FEM model for simulating the large-scale octet and Kelvin lattices.
a, Schematic of the hybrid model, in which the lattices near the crack tip are modelled as beam elements and the rest of the sample is modelled as solid elements. b, Simulated stress distribution before crack propagation.
Extended Data Fig. 10 Fabrication of large-scale THz metamaterials.
a, A right-handed (RH) 1-cm2 helical THz metamaterial fabricated using metalens-based TPL and coated with gold before embedding in PDMS. b, Principle of using such helical THz metamaterials as transmission polarizers. The gold-coated structure is embedded in PDMS and detached from the substrate. c, Measured ellipticity of the left-handed (LH) and RH THz polarizers from 0.2 THz to 1.2 THz. The RH polarizer is measured with different incident angles to demonstrate robust chirality. d, A 1-cm2 THz metamaterial patterned with both RH and LH helices, embedded in PDMS and detached from the rigid substrate for flexible applications. e, SEM images of the fabricated helices with both LH and RH regions. Scale bars, 500 µm (zoomed-out view); 50 µm (zoomed-in view). f, Measured ellipticity map of the THz metamaterial in d at 1.012 THz. The unit-cell design and dimensions are given in Supplementary Fig. 12a.
Supplementary information
Supplementary Information (download PDF )
This file contains Supplementary Methods, Notes, Tables 1–3, Figs. 1–13 and references.
Supplementary Video 1 (download MP4 )
Demonstration of the microfluidic capillary network.
Supplementary Video 2 (download MP4 )
Tensile experiments of the chainmail, Kelvin, and octet lattices.
Supplementary Video 3 (download MOV )
LS-DEM modelling of the chainmail lattice under tension.
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Gu, S., Mao, C., Guell Izard, A. et al. 3D nanolithography with metalens arrays and spatially adaptive illumination. Nature 648, 591–599 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09842-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-025-09842-x
