3D-Printed Enclosure Wire-Guided Liquid Microfilm for Versatile Spectroscopy

Abstract

We present a 3D-printing-based design to produce wire-guided liquid microfilms that can be used for versatile spectroscopic applications. We demonstrate the ability of our instrument to provide optically useful liquid microfilms with highly tunable thicknesses over the range 25 - 180 $\mu$m, with standard temporal thickness deviation less than 1.0% on the low end of the range of flow rates, and spatially homogeneous microfilms that remain stable over the course of ten hours. We then show the device's versatility through its use in Raman, fluorescence, and nonlinear spectroscopy. Our approach is highly reproducible as a unique advantage of a 3D-printed enclosure and limited other components. The 3D-printable file for the enclosure is included in the supplementary materials. This innovation in design shows the feasibility of applying 3D-printing to physical and chemical instrumentation for faster adoption of experimental techniques.