It is commonly known that surface modification of polymer materials is a useful solution to generate functionalities by producing well-defined topographical elements or modifying their chemistry. This leads to an increase of the potential range of applications in the fields of biomedical applications, microfluidics, as well as the fabrication of decorative motives or antibacterial surfaces [1, 2].
Laser-based processing techniques have proven to be an effective option of modifying polymer surfaces. Here, Direct Laser Interference Patterning is used in conjunction with the polygon scanner technique for the first time to fabricate textured polystyrene surfaces through ultra-fast beam deflection (Figure 1a). By using a high-average power picosecond laser source in combination with a mirror-based polygon scanning system, large scan field sizes and therefore high material throughout were achieved. An Illustration of the exemplary textured material surface is depicted in Figure 1b. A two-beam DLIP optical configuration was chosen to generate line-like structures (Figure 1c) with a spatial period of 21.0 µm. Next to the scanning speed, the impact of the repetition rate on the structure formation is studied, reaching structure heights up to 23 µm. Furthermore, the formation of the micro-structure was found as a combination of swelling and ablation mechanisms. By applying scanning speeds of up to 350 m/s, a structuring throughput of 1.1 m²/min has been reached [3].