3d Auxetic Metamaterials Made Using Multiphoton Polymerisation

Summary form only given. We present our latest work into the modelling and fabrication of 3D auxetic metamaterials. These are materials that display a negative Poisson's ratio; their properties are mainly due to their architecture, rather than their chemical composition [1]. To make these metamaterials, we employ 3D multiphoton polymerisation (MPP) of photopolymers [2]. This is a technique which allows the fabrication of 3D microstructures with sub-100 nm resolution. It is based on the phenomenon of multiphoton absorption (MPA). When the beam of an ultrafast laser tightly focused inside the volume of a transparent photopolymer, it can initiate polymerisation via MPA. Moving the beam in a three-dimensional manner will result in the direct writing of 3D structures inside the volume of the photopolymer.