Selective metallization of Ag₂O-dope silicate glass by femtosecond laser direct writing

Abstract

We investigated the selective metallization on Ag₂O-doped silicate glass under femtosecond laser irradiation after electroless plating. We found, as increasing the laser power, the width of the ablated groove increased from 2.5 to 7.5 µm, and then the resulted new surface could offer an active site for reduction of Cu cations, leading to corresponding plated Cu lines with widths from 7.4 to 25.4 µm. The mechanism was supposed as irradiation of the femtosecond laser (FL) on Ag₂O doped silicate glass surfaces result in the reduction of silver ions, and consequently, then the formation of silver atoms or even silver nanoparticles became the seeds for the next electroless plating process.