Biomimetic construction of hierarchical structures via laser processing

Biomimetic hierarchical structures are an important branch among bio-inspired materials. These structures are responsible for rich physical and chemical phenomena. In this paper, we briefly reviewed facile methods to fabricate large-area biomimetic hierarchical structures via laser processing. One is based on femtosecond laser direct writing, and the other is based on two-beam interference lithography. In details, the first method is laser ablation on ZnS thin films via femtosecond direct writing combined with a phase mask. The second method is a multi-exposure lithography by two-beam interference on a photoresist with varied exposure angles to acquire structural hierarchies with periodicity. Owing to the outstanding patterning ability of the two laser-processing approaches, a diversity of large-area hierarchical structures can be obtained and show rich biomimetic functions such as superhydrophobicity. (C) 2017 Optical Society of America