Laser Processing of Polymer Materials: New Techniques to Prepare Advanced Materials by using Excimer Lasers.

Abstract

Development of excimer lasers brought new phenomena for processing of polymer materials. Polymer ablation has already been utilized for micromachining in industry. In these years investigations on laser processing of polymer materials are extending to not only micromachining but also thin film preparation and surface modification. This paper reviews new techniques to prepare advanced polymer materials and discusses new directions of polymer processing.Interaction of excimer lasers with polymer materials has induced various phenomena which could not be opened by other traditional methods or physical techniques. Most distinctive characteristics of excimer lasers is a source of high-quality and high-intensity ultraviolet photons, which makes possible to excite high electronic levels by multiphoton excitation mechanism. We can design and expect new reactions through higher excited levels for various starting materials including polymers. These possibilities will give useful processing of polymer materials if we correspond to industrial needs and design the most suitable reaction fields.