Tailor-Made Polymers for Laser Ablation.

Abstract

Photopolymers based on triazene-groups were designed for UV laser ablation. The tested triazene-polymer reveals a low threshold fluence and unusually high ablation rates at low and high fluences. The polymer decomposes into gaseous products, resulting in clean ablation structures without surface contaminations. The triazene-polymer was also tested for two different applications at two different irradiation wavelengths, i.e. in the UV (308 nm) and in the near-IR (935 nm). Diffractive gray tone phase masks optimized for laser ablation were applied to fabricate microoptical elements. The triazene-polymereveals also superior properties for applications in the near-IR. Near-IR irradiation is used to create a plasma which could be used as thruster for microsatellites. The carbon-doped triazene-polymer shows higher values of the momentum coupling coefficient and specific impulse than a commercial polymer. The well-defined threshold for the maximum momentum coupling coefficient was only observed for the designed polymer.