Abstract
In laser thermal transfer printing using dye sublimation type medium, a high definition and continuous tone image can be obtained easily because the laser is focused to small spot and heat energy can be controlled by the pulse width modulation of laser light. In this report, we made the ink sheet that was composed of the laser absorbing layer, yellow and cyan sublimation dye layers in order to investigate the transfer mechanism of color dye. By the measurement of absorption spectrum of transferred dyes, we have confirmed that the dye in the front surface layer and two color dyes are transferred in the range of low and high recording energy, respectively. The expansions of ink sheet and receiving sheet were observed with Atomic Force Microscope. The color dye can be transferred uniformly from the ink sheet to receiving sheet because the ink sheet contacts with the receiving sheet by the thermal expansion of both sheets.
