However, achieving a similar feat with inorganic materials, especially metals, has proved challenging owing to their properties. Now, Yaoyu Wang and co-workers from Wuhan University in China and Purdue University in the USA report how two-photon decomposition and optical force trapping can print 3D structures from metals, metal oxides and alloys, with a resolution as fine as 100 nm (Y. Wang et al. Nat. Mater. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41563-024-01984-z; 2024).

The team has successfully written intricate structures made from molybdenum, cobalt and tungsten and their alloys, including shapes such as footballs, flowers, spirals and nanowires (see picture).