Discussion on 3D holographic laser nanoprinting (Invited Paper)

The ultimate dream of 3D laser nanoprinting is to manufacture arbitrary macroscopic complex 3D structures with nanometer feature sizes by exposing an ink with a single femtosecond laser pulse. We argue that the corresponding light fields can be shaped by optical holography, which literally allows to print at the speed of light. We further argue that currently available single-box regeneratively amplified femtosecond lasers with mJ pulse energy, 100-fs pulse duration, 800-nm wavelength, and 1-10 kHz repetition rate together with multi-photon absorption should allow for exposing 3D objects containing 10^8 to 10^9 voxels within one picosecond, leading to peak print rates of 10^20 to 10^21 voxel/s. Such values would surpass the current best peak print rates of about 10^8 voxel/s by a very large margin. We give an introduction and review steps in this direction by other groups.