Optical patterning fullerene nanostructures with high purity and high surface quality

Nanoscale patterning of fullerene materials with peculiar intrinsic electronic and optical properties is of crucial importance for their widespread applications. However, it remains a daunting challenge for current methods that suffer from both complicated lithography procedures and additives of photopolymers or photochemicals detrimental to the pristine properties of fullerene. Here, we developed a contamination-free laser printing approach for in situ patterning of fullerene with nanoscale resolution and high purity. The optical trapping force within the tight focus provides a lithography-free means to form densely packed fullerene nanostructures with two-order-of-magnitude enhanced fluorescence emission and a surface roughness of 6 nm. In addition, versatile fullerene nano-patterns from dots to concentric rings can be realized by flexibly shaping the optical trapping force of higher-order Laguerre–Gaussian beams. These results open a new route to programmable and high-quality patterning of fullerene optoelectronic devices with complex nanostructures.