Kirigami Structures of Shape Memory Polymer by Femtosecond Laser Scribing and Constrained Heating

Kirigami-inspired structures have found a large variety of applications such as mechanical metamaterials, electronic devices, and biomedicine. In this paper, a facile method is reported to construct deformable Kirigami structures on shape memory polymer with femtosecond laser. Simple slits are scribed using femtosecond laser via an athermal manner and then spontaneously transformed into complicated Kirigami structures under the constrained heating. The deformation process of the Kirigami structures is systematically investigated, which can be accurately predicated by simulation results and thus provide the basis for the programmable structure preparation. The Kirigami structures with controllable deformation are obtained by engineering the initial laser-scribed pattern and heating condition. The method features simplicity, neglectable material loss, and does not need external mechanical force. As a proof of concept demonstration, the as-prepared Kirigami structure is utilized for efficient water harvesting. This work holds great promise in broad applications including mechanical metamaterials and bioinspired functional surfaces.