Overview: Two-photon lithography (TPL) has been a research hotspot in 3D micro/nano writing technology due to its characteristics of high resolution, low thermal influence, a wide range of processed materials, low environmental requirements, and 3D processing capability. It has shown unique advantages in the fields of life science, material engineering, micro/nano optics, microfluidic, micro machinery, and so on. This paper summarizes the research works done by researchers on different writing methods to improve TPL processing efficiency. Single-beam writing is the main method for TPL, which mainly depends on the speed of the scanning device. Single-beam writing has the advantages of simple system and high-quality beam, and it is easy to combine various effects to improve writing results. It mainly includes scanning modes based on the translation stage, galvo, polygon laser scanner, and acousto-optic deflector (AOD) (Fig. 2). All these modes have advantages and disadvantages. As for the scanning speed comparison, polygon laser scanner and AOD have relatively faster writing rates (faster than m/s). Multi-foci parallel lithography can obviously promote efficiency, elevating the speed by dozens or even hundreds of thousands of times, mainly based on spatial light modulator (SLM), digital micromirror device (DMD), microlens array (MLA), diffractive optical elements (DOE), multi-beam interference, and so on (Figs. 3-15). Multi-foci parallel lithography based on SLM is most widely used owing to its high efficiency and ability to flexible and independent control of each single beam, but the refresh rate is still insufficient. DMD has a higher refreshing rate (32 kHz), but the state-of-the-art beam parallelism realized by DMD is severely limited. More parallel beams are further required for improving the processing efficiency. The 2D pattern exposure method based on SLM or DMD can further improve the TPL efficiency with the superiority of generating flexibly designed pattern (Figs. 16-18). However, the 2D projection exposure technology is still difficult to achieve high writing precision, especially the axial resolution. An available method to improve the axial precision is spatially and temporally focusing an ultrafast laser to implement a strong intensity gradient at the spatial focal plane that restricts polymerization within a thin layer. The 3D projection method will be the most efficient writing method in the future, especially in 3D device processing (Figs. 19-20). Researchers used this technique to make hollow tubular and conical helices structures, increasing the processing speed by 600 times. However, the research results show that the current 3D projection can only process simple 3D structures. Further researches on 3D exposure processing of complex structures are expected, which will effectively expand its application in various fields. Authors believe that with the effort of researchers on efficiency improvement gradually, TPL can further highlight its advantages to promote the development of life science, materials engineering, micro-nano optics, and many other fields.

We propose a new method for the development of multi-beam systems for the spatial alignment and stability of beams based on the error separation technique. This method avoids alignment errors caused by coupling effect of piezoelectric devices, inaccurate correction calculations, and detection mode of the angular deviation. According to the results by external detectors, the error value of spatial alignment and the root mean square (RMS) of deviations under control during 1 h can be equivalent to approximately 0.87 and 1.06 nm at the sample plane under an oil immersion lens (focal length f=2mm). The RMS of deviations is less than one-third of those currently reported for multi-beam systems; therefore, higher alignment and stability accuracy can be achieved with our proposed method.