Nonuniform shrinkage and stretching of polymerized nanostructures fabricated by two-photon photopolymerization

We propose a method to measure the nonuniform shrinkage and stretching of polymerized nanostructures by marking them with periodical points. The method was tested, and the results showed that suspended lines themselves shrank after fabrication, but they were also stretched due to the shrinkage of their support anchors, a phenomenon that has not been investigated much before. The extension strain was measured from the change in the separation points, which reached 75% for a 2 µm-long line with a width of 40 nm.