Laser-induced forward transfer: Propelling liquids with light

Abstract Laser‐induced forward transfer (LIFT) constitutes an interesting alternative to conventional printing techniques in microfabrication applications. Originally developed to print inorganic materials from solid films, it was later proved that LIFT was feasible for printing liquids as well, which substantially broadened the range of printable materials. Any material which can be suspended or dissolved in an ink can be in principle printed through LIFT. The principle of operation of LIFT relies on the localized absorption of a focused laser pulse in a thin film of the ink containing the material to print (donor). This results in the generation of a cavitation bubble which expansion displaces a fraction of the liquid around it, leading to the formation of a jet which propagates away the donor and towards the receiving substrate, placed at a short distance from the liquid free surface. The contact of the jet with this receiving substrate results in the deposition of a sessile droplet. Thus, each droplet results from a single laser pulse, and the generation of micropatterns is achieved through the printing of successive droplets. A similar ejection and deposition process is produced by generating a cavitation bubble below the surface of a liquid contained in a reservoir in the film-free laser printing configuration. In this work we review our main achievements on the laser printing of inks, paying special attention to the analysis of the liquid transfer dynamics and its correlation with the printing outcomes.