Isotropic Shrinkage of Patterned Vacancies Enables Three-Dimensional Nanoprecise Metastructures for Visible Light Applications

Authors

• Quansan Yang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Gaojie Yang, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Takahiro Nambara, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Hiroyuki Kusaka, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Yuichiro Kunai, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Alex C. Matlock, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Corban Swain, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Brett Pryor, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Yannick Salamin, University of Central Florida
• Daniel Oran, MIT Media Lab
• Hasindu Kariyawasam, Harvard University
• Ramith Hettiarachchi, Harvard University
• Dushan Wadduwage, Old Dominion UniversityFollow
• Marin Soljačić, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Peter T. C. Soflaei, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• Edward S. Boyden, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2026

DOI

10.1038/s41566-026-01896-1

Publication Title

Nature Photonics

Volume

20

Issue

6

Pages

653-663

Abstract

Three-dimensional metastructures with nanoscale feature sizes exhibit unique properties compared with structures with larger feature sizes, but are difficult to fabricate. Here we introduce implosion carving (ImpCarv), a method for photopatterning vacancies of complex geometry throughout materials, followed by isotropic shrinkage (>10-fold). ImpCarv works by photoactivating sensitizers to generate reactive oxygen species that cleave a swollen hydrogel at defined points, followed by controlled shrinkage via dehydration. ImpCarv creates three-dimensional metastructures where the refractive index of each point throughout a material can be specified with nanoscale precision via material presence or absence. By leveraging refractive index programmability for precise phase control, we demonstrate an all-optical machine learning device with nanoscale neuron sizes operating at visible wavelengths. ImpCarv may thus support diverse applications in nanophotonics and nanotechnology.

Rights

© 2026 The Authors.

This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original authors and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons license and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder.

Data Availability

Article states: "Source data are provided with this paper. These data and raw images associated with this study are available via figshare at https://figshare.com/s/5cc9870df36c3852fd39 (ref. 65)."

Original Publication Citation

Yang, Q., Yang, G., Nambara, T., Kusaka, H., Kunai, Y., Matlock, A. C., Swain, C., Pryor, B., Salamin, Y., Oran, D., Kariyawasam, H., Hettiarachchi, R., Wadduwage, D., Soljai, M., So, P. T. C., & Boyden, E. S. (2026). Isotropic shrinkage of patterned vacancies enables three-dimensional nanoprecise metastructures for visible light applications. Nature Photonics, 20(6), 653-663. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-026-01896-1

Repository Citation

Yang, Q., Yang, G., Nambara, T., Kusaka, H., Kunai, Y., Matlock, A. C., Swain, C., Pryor, B., Salamin, Y., Oran, D., Kariyawasam, H., Hettiarachchi, R., Wadduwage, D., Soljai, M., So, P. T. C., & Boyden, E. S. (2026). Isotropic shrinkage of patterned vacancies enables three-dimensional nanoprecise metastructures for visible light applications. Nature Photonics, 20(6), 653-663. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41566-026-01896-1

ORCID

0000-0002-0689-9454 (Wadduwage)