Experimental investigation of laser induced forward transfer process of metal thin films

Area-selective microscale metallization on porous anodic oxide film of aluminium

“…Meanwhile, several laser-assisted direct processes have been established to generate metallic micropatterns on various insulators. The most often used techniques are laser activation for successive electroless plating [4], laser-assisted chemical vapour deposition (LCVD) [5], laser-induced forward transfer (LIFT) [6], and others. Further, research has been undergoing to develop and to improve the methods and compatibility of the techniques on various types of substrates.…”

Laser-induced forward transfer of pure metals

“…Still, only a few articles on the imaging of LIFT of pure metals exist. Unfortunately, these publications either suffer from limited spatial resolution [31][32][33][34] or miss a systematic study of experimental parameters. Hence, a detailed classification of different ejection regimes towards higher fluence levels is missing, for the ejection dynamics of copper as well as for gold.…”

“…However, due to the challenging visualization conditions, time-resolved visualization has only been achieved for relatively thick liquid-film [21][22][23][24][25] and solid phase [26][27][28] or paste-transfer [29,30] processes. Attempts to visualize LIFT-processing of Au [31], Ni [32], Al [33], and Cr [34] do not provide sufficient spatial resolution to track the process in detail. Therefore, theories describing the ejection mechanism have been proposed based on postprocess analysis of the craters left in the donor layer or deposited features on the receiver substrate [35][36][37].…”

“…Sano et al [32] employed a shadowgraphic imaging study in order to investigate LIFT key parameters such as laser fluence and carrier-receiver separation with respect to the accuracy of the deposited features. Accurate printing was achieved using optimum laser fluence levels and a minimized carrier-receiver separation.…”

“…To answer this question, high-resolution imaging is proven to be a suitable method to provide insights in the ejection dynamics during LIFT. However, as yet time-resolved observations of LIFT processes of Au [31], Ni [32] and Cr [34] do not achieve sufficient spatial resolution to follow the dynamics of the ejection process in detail and to identify the origin of the contamination.…”