Biologically-derived, non-planar, microlens arrays

POLY 67

Kevin J. Henderson, kevin-henderson@northwestern.edu1, Edward T. Samulski, et@unc.edu2, Larken E. Euliss, euliss@email.unc.edu3, and Joseph DeSimone, desimone@unc.edu2. (1) Department of Materials Science and Engineering, Northwestern University, 2220 Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208-3108, (2) Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina, CB# 3290, Chapel Hill, NC 27599-3290, (3) Department of Chemistry, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, B-5 Venable Hall, Chapel Hill, NC 27599
An insect compound eye has a wide field of view due to its non-planar arrangement of angularly-selective, ommatidial lenses. However facile fabrication of non-planar arrays of optical components via a seamless integration of shape and composition is not readily accessible using conventional photolithography. Herein, we report a replication route to non-planar three-dimensional microlens arrays. Our methodology exploits the compound eye topography of the common fly. Soft lithographic techniques are extended to fabricate a topographically-faithful mold of a fly's eye. A globally-concave mold (“negative”) comprised of a non-wetting perfluoronated polyether (PFPE) is produced when the PFPE precursor in contact with a biological specimen is photopolymerized. This unique elastic fluoropolymeric material not only reproduces the hemispherical global eye shape, but also captures the individual convex lenses and delineates each lens's sub-250 nm features. This negative is in turn used to produce a “positive” replica of the original eye topography from conventional photo- or thermally-polymerized monomers, e.g., PDMS, PEG, or PMMA.
 

National Starch & Chemical Company Award for Outstanding Graduate Research in Polymer Science and Engineering
1:45 PM-5:00 PM, Sunday, August 19, 2007 Westin Boston Waterfront -- Grand Ballroom C, Oral

Division of Polymer Chemistry

The 234th ACS National Meeting, Boston, MA, August 19-23, 2007