Ablation and etching of polymethylmethacrylate by very short (160 fs) ultraviolet (308 nm) laser pulses

Srinivasan, R.; Sutcliffe, E.; Braren, Bodil

doi:10.1063/1.99001

Cited by 183 publications

(68 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…Sapphire was chosen as a highly conductive material and PMMA as a low conductor. For the latter, the ablation threshold is high enough (900-1100 mJ/cm 2 [39,40]) to ensure that the substrate does not undergo ablation in the investigated fluence range.…”

Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of thermal diffusion on the laser ablation of thin polymer films

et al. 2007

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The laser ablation of a photosensitive triazene polymer was investigated with a ns XeCl excimer laser over a broad range of thicknesses (10-400 nm). We found that the ablation threshold fluence increased dramatically with decreasing film thickness for films thinner than 50 nm. Ablation on substrates with different thermal properties (sapphire, fused silica, PMMA) was investigated as well, and a clear influence of the substrate material was obtained. A mathematical model combining thermal diffusion and absorption effects was used to explain the experimental data. The model is in good agreement with the experimental data and shows that heat diffusion into the substrate plays a crucial role for the ablation process of very thin films.PACS 52.38.Mf; 44.05.+e; 81.05.Lg IntroductionLaser ablation finds a broad range of applications because it allows us to create microstructures by dry etching, deposit material from a target to a substrate, perform analysis of fragments and is also used for some special applications, such as laser plasma thrusters [1,2].Material deposition by laser ablation is a useful tool in the field of materials processing. The pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique allows us to transfer and produce films of inorganic [3,4] and organic materials [5][6][7][8]. Matrix-assisted pulsed laser evaporation (MAPLE) can be applied to transfer small molecules from a frozen matrix to a substrate [8,9]. One of the most promising techniques to transfer organic thin films is laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT), which allows us to deposit and pattern materials in the same process [10][11][12][13][14]. It consists of the following steps: a transparent substrate is coated with the material that has to be transferred. This so-called donor substrate is placed in front of a receiver plate and a laser pulse is applied through the donor. The coated material absorbs the laser pulse and is ablatively ejected and deposited on the receiver. This method is appropriate for metal deposition but not for sensitive materials, such as polymers, because these may be damaged by the thermal load and photochemical reactions due to irradiation. A modification of the technique can solve this problem. The principle is the application of a twolayer system: a sacrificial layer acting as an absorber and the transfer material are successively coated on the donor substrate. Upon receiving the laser pulse, the sacrificial layer absorbs the energy, is decomposed into gaseous fragments and provides the thrust for propelling the top layer onto the receiver [15]. Furthermore, the absorbing material protects the top layer from the laser pulse and is specially designed to decompose at low fluences. Among various polymers, triazenebased polymers (TP) show the lowest ablation threshold at 308 nm and are therefore the most promising materials for this application [16][17][18].It has been shown that this sacrificial layer allows us to transfer quantum dots [19], living cells embedded in a matrix [20] and even functional pixels of organic ligh...

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Section: 3mentioning

confidence: 99%

Influence of thermal diffusion on the laser ablation of thin polymer films

et al. 2007

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“…The extension to laser nanomachining is a fascinating and relatively new field, where basic research and advanced applications have moved at the same pace since the first report in 1987 that ultrafast lasers are feasible for materials processing. The sharp ablation of polymethyl methacrylate was demonstrated, using a 160-femtosecond UV excimer laser [1]. Two impressive results were reported that, namely, a heat affected zone (HAZ) almost does not form in the irradiated target and that the ablation threshold is significantly lower than using a nanosecond excimer laser.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 79%

Laser Controlled Synthesis of Noble Metal Nanoparticle Arrays for Low Concentration Molecule Recognition

et al. 2014

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Nanostructured gold and silver thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition. Performing the process in an ambient gas (Ar) leads to the nucleation and growth of nanoparticles in the ablation plasma and their self-organization on the substrate. The dependence of surface nanostructuring of the films on the deposition parameters is discussed considering in particular the number of laser pulses and the ambient gas nature and pressure. The performance of the deposited thin films as substrates for surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) was tested against the detection of molecules at a low concentration. Taking Raman maps on micrometer-sized areas, the spatial homogeneity of the substrates with respect to the SERS signal was tested.

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“…The situation is the same for other major conferences including the Conference on Laser Ablation (COLA) and the International Symposium on Laser Precision Microfabrication (LPM). Looking back at the history of ultrafast laser processing, it was initiated in 1987 by the Srinivasan [10] and Stuke groups [11]. Both of these groups demonstrated clean polymer ablation using femtosecond excimer lasers almost without the formation of an HAZ and with a significant reduction of the ablation threshold compared with nanosecond lasers.…”

Section: Introduction and Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In addition, if the focus position of the ultrafast laser beam is set inside a transparent material, then multiphoton absorption can be confined to a region near the focal volume to implement internal modification and 3D micro-and nanofabrication of transparent materials [7][8][9]. Thus, since the first demonstration of femtosecond laser ablation in 1987 [10,11], research and development with regard to ultrafast laser processing has rapidly advanced. Figure 1 shows the evolution of the number of papers related to ultrafast laser processing presented at the SPIE LAMOM conference each year.…”

Section: Introduction and Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Progress in ultrafast laser processing and future prospects

Sugioka

2017

Nanophotonics

180

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Abstract:The unique characteristics of ultrafast lasers have rapidly revolutionized materials processing after their first demonstration in 1987. The ultrashort pulse width of the laser suppresses heat diffusion to the surroundings of the processed region, which minimizes the formation of a heat-affected zone and thereby enables ultrahigh precision micro-and nanofabrication of various materials. In addition, the extremely high peak intensity can induce nonlinear multiphoton absorption, which extends the diversity of materials that can be processed to transparent materials such as glass. Nonlinear multiphoton absorption enables three-dimensional (3D) micro-and nanofabrication by irradiation with tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses inside transparent materials. Thus, ultrafast lasers are currently widely used for both fundamental research and practical applications. This review presents progress in ultrafast laser processing, including micromachining, surface micro-and nanostructuring, nanoablation, and 3D and volume processing. Advanced technologies that promise to enhance the performance of ultrafast laser processing, such as hybrid additive and subtractive processing, and shaped beam processing are discussed. Commercial and industrial applications of ultrafast laser processing are also introduced. Finally, future prospects of the technology are given with a summary.

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Ablation and etching of polymethylmethacrylate by very short (160 fs) ultraviolet (308 nm) laser pulses

Cited by 183 publications

References 7 publications

Influence of thermal diffusion on the laser ablation of thin polymer films

Influence of thermal diffusion on the laser ablation of thin polymer films

Laser Controlled Synthesis of Noble Metal Nanoparticle Arrays for Low Concentration Molecule Recognition

Progress in ultrafast laser processing and future prospects

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