Flexible metal electrodes are essential for flexible electronics, where the main challenge is to obtain mask-free patterned metals directly on substrates such as poly(dimethylsiloxane) (PDMS) at low cost. This work highlights a feasible strategy named femtosecond laser-activated metal deposition for electroless deposition of metals (Cu, Ni, Ag, and Au) on PDMS, which is suitable for maskless and low-cost fabrication of metal layers on PDMS and even on other materials of different natures including polyethylene terephthalate, paper, Si, and glass. The electrical conductivity of the PDMS/Cu electrode is comparable to that of bulk Cu. Moreover, robust bonding at the PDMS/Cu interface is evidenced by a scotch tape test and bending test of more than 20,000 cycles. Compared with previous studies using a nanosecond laser, the restriction on absorbing sensitizers could be alleviated, and catalysts could originate from precursors without polymer substrates under a femtosecond laser, which may be attributed to nonlinear absorption and ultrashort heating time with the femtosecond laser. Implementing a human-machine interface task is demonstrated by recognizing hand gestures via a multichannel electrode array with high fidelity to control a robot hand.
Keywords: femtosecond laser; flexible electrodes; metal deposition; poly(dimethylsiloxane); strong adhesion.