Rapid fabrication of flexible electronics is attracting much attention in many industries. There is a need for rapidly producing flexible electronic components without the reliance on costly precursor materials and complex processes. In this work, a direct laser writing process is presented as capable of rapidly depositing flexible copper or copper oxide structures with a high degree of control over electrical properties. The direct laser writing process uses a low-power fiber laser beam to selectively irradiate a thin film of copper ions to form and interconnect copper nanoparticles. The electrical properties of the deposited patterns can be controlled through tuning laser power, scanning speed, and beam defocus. The microstructures of patterns printed at varying laser powers are investigated using SEM, XPS, and XRD and the relation between laser power and sheet resistance is explored. The results showed that high laser energy densities resulted in highly conductive patterns of metallic copper, whereas lower energy patterns resulted in copper oxide rich patterns with significantly lower conductivity. This method can produce high-quality flexible electronic components with a range of potential applications, as demonstrated by the proof-of-concept fabrication of a flexible memristive junction with resistive switching observed at +/- 0.7V, and a Ron/Roff ratio of 10^2.
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