ABLATION OF ORGANIC POLYMERS BY TEA CO₂ LASER

Abstract

Ablation of organic polymers (PES: polyether sulphone, PEEK: polyether ether ketone, and ETFE: ethylene tetrafluoroethylene) by an oscillation line of selected TEA CO₂ lasers is successfully demonstrated. The ablative etch rate slopes were varied with different irradiation conditions such as incident laser intensity and ambient gas. As an application of the ablation processing, spatial periodic structure is fabricated on the surface of the PEEK film by two-beam interference irradiation of the TEA CO₂ laser. It is found that the fluorocopolymer modified by copolymerization has a significant absorption in the oscillating wavelength region of the TEA CO₂ laser and it can be ablated efficiently.