Interface study on laser-induced material transfer from polymer and quartz surfaces

Abstract With an excimer laser at 193 nm, gold and aluminum were ejected imagewise from Teflon AF, poly(methacrylonitrile) and quartz surfaces. The threshold fluence of a 230 A thick gold film from a Teflon AF surface was 7.9 mJ/cm 2 , whereas the threshold fluence from a quartz surface was determined to be 17.8 mJ/cm 2 . For aluminum on quartz and aluminum-coated polymers, higher fluences were necessary in comparison to gold, ranging from 13.0 to 22.7 mJ/cm 2 . It has been demonstrated that the energy required for a material transfer was also reduced by half and the image quality was improved especially for gold on Teflon AF on quartz. Interfacial reactions between the polymer films and the metal layer were studied with scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and static secondary ion mass spectroscopy (SSIMS). The degradation process of the polymers used for backside laser irradiation was determined with a combination of these analytical techniques.