Micro/nano processing of natural silk fibers with near-field enhanced ultrafast laser

Silkworm silk fiber is an attractive material owing to its remarkable mechanical characteristics, excellent optical properties, and good biocompatibility and biodegradability. However, nano-processing of the silk fiber is still a challenge limiting its applications in nanoengineering and related fields. Herein, we report localized near-field enhancement-assisted ablation with an ultrafast laser to break this bottleneck. Localized processing of silk fiber, including nano-holing, nano-grooving, and cutting could retain the key molecular structure building blocks and the pristine functionality of the silk fiber. An extremely narrow nanohole with a width of ~64 nm was successfully achieved. The processed silk fiber can be used to transfer micro/nanoparticles and drugs, showing potential for biomedical engineering. The processing strategy developed in this study can also be extended to other materials, paving a new way for fabricating functional nanostructures with precisely controlled size and morphology.