Cold welding of silica nanoparticles for various glass 3D architectures and nano-devices

Professor Yang Lu and his collaborators successfully achieved "cold welding" (a solid-state welding process that requires no heat to join materials together) of silica glass nanoparticles. The welding process can be controlled in situ through adjusting the electron beam and gas environment and the welding quality is high enough for building high-definition glass three-dimensional (3D) micro/nano-architectures (see attached photo). This approach would potentially allow ultra-high resolution bottom-up assembly and 3D printing of silica nanostructures for various functional glass micro/nano-devices.