The processing and hetero-structuring of silk with few cycle fs pulses

Abstract

The spider silk is an excellent biomaterial that is light weight, elastic, yet tougher than steel. A great deal of research has been performed to understand its functions, new properties [1, 2], structure-function relation and its scope of applications has been very wide. There are two key difficulties, first, it is difficult to process silk with nanometer scale precision while preserving its excellent properties, and, second, it is also difficult to combine silk with other materials such as metals, glass, polymers etc.