The University of Science and Technology of China's School of Engineering Science has made new breakthroughs in the processing of femtosecond laser-induced materials.
In collaboration with the National University of Singapore, the institute used femtosecond lasers to prepare reconfigurable structures on the surface of shape memory polymers, discovered a new "polymer self-growth" effect, and used this effect to prepare a variety of reconfigurable functional micro- structure.
It is understood that this work introduces a "self-growth" method of scanning microscale, locally reconfigurable structures on the surface of a pre-stretched shape memory polymer by femtosecond laser scanning. By controlling the local heating and ablation of the laser, it was found that the microstructure can grow from the surface, and the asymmetric laser scanning strategy can be used to further regulate the resulting structure. By combining flexible, programmable laser processing technology with smart shape memory polymers, an excellent example of reconfigurable structure preparation is demonstrated.