Synergistic effect of EUV from the laser-sustained detonation plasma in a ground-based atomic oxygen simulation on fluorinated polymers

Abstract

The contribution of extreme ultraviolet (EUV) from a laser‐sustained plasma on the mass loss phenomenon of fluorinated polymer in a ground‐based laser‐detonation atomic oxygen beam source was evaluated. The atomic oxygen beam and EUV from the oxygen plasma were separated by the high‐speed chopper wheel installed in the beam source. The mass changes of the fluorinated polymer and polyimide were measured from the frequency shift of the quartz crystal microbalance during the beam exposures. It has been made clear that the fluorinated polymer erodes by EUV exposure alone. In contrast, no erosion was detected for polyimide by EUV alone. The atomic oxygen‐induced erosion was measured for both materials even without EUV exposure. However, no strong synergistic effect was observed for a fluorinated polymer even under the simultaneous exposure condition of atomic oxygen and EUV. Similar results were observed even in simultaneous exposure of atomic oxygen (without EUV) and 172 nm vacuum ultraviolet (VUV) from an excimer lamp. These experiments suggest that the primary origin of the accelerated erosion of fluorinated polymer observed in a laser detonation atomic oxygen source is not the EUV from the laser‐sustained plasma.