(December 16, 2015) Thanks
to a new revolutionary laser printing technology, it is now possible to print
this press release in colour on an area no bigger than a hair. This
breakthrough in nanotechnology will be published on 14 December 2015 in an
article in the scientific journal Nature Nanotechnology.
A nanotechnology breakthrough from DTU revolutionizes laser
printing technology, allowing you to print high-resolution data and colour
images of unprecedented quality and microscopic dimensions.
Using this new technology, DTU researchers from DTU Nanotech
and DTU Fotonik have reproduced a colour image of Mona Lisa which is less than
one pixel on an iPhone Retina display. The laser technology allows printing in
a mind-blowing resolution of 127,000 DPI. In comparison, weekly or monthly
magazines are normally printed in a resolution equivalent to 300 DPI.
Researchers from
DTU Nanotech and DTU Fotonik have succeeded
in printing a
microscopic Mona Lisa. She is 50 micrometres long
or about 10,000
times smaller than the real Mona Lisa in the Louvre in Paris.
Printing the microscopic images requires a special
nanoscale-structured surface. The structure consists of rows with small columns
with a diameter of merely 100 nanometres each. This structured surface is then
covered by 20 nanometres of aluminium. When a laser pulse is transmitted from
nanocolumn to nanocolumn, the nanocolumn is heated locally, after which it
melts and is deformed. The temperature can reach up to 1,500°C, but only for a
few nanoseconds, preventing the extreme heat from spreading.