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Selective laser ablation and patterning on Ag thin films with width and depth control

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Abstract

Silver (Ag) films were deposited on glass substrates by radio frequency (RF) magnetron sputtering and then ablated by a 532 nm nanosecond pulsed laser. The effects of laser fluence and defocusing amount on the width and depth of laser-ablated grooves on 100- and 600-nm-thick Ag films were systematically investigated under single- and multi-scan ablation. The results suggested that the Ag films could be successfully removed from the substrate owing to laser-induced thermoelastic force or vaporization. It was confirmed that laser fluence and defocusing amount played very important roles in controlling the width and depth of the laser-ablated grooves. In the present work, grooves with widths ranging from 53 to 196 μm and depths ranging from 56 to 196 nm were obtained on 100-nm-thick Ag films by single-scan laser ablation, and laser ablation or removal with controllable depths was realized on 600-nm-thick Ag films by adopting single- or multi-scan (i.e., scanning numbers of 1–6). Furthermore, square spiral Ag patterns were successfully obtained by single- and multi-scan laser ablation and showed good electrical conductivity in a simple circuit. This work may have great potential applications in various fields that demand width and depth control of laser ablation/removal.

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Acknowledgements

This work was funded by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 51805220 and 61405078), the Jiangsu University Study-Abroad Fund (Reference No. UJS-2017–013) and the Jiangsu Government Scholarship for Overseas Studies (Reference No. JS-2016–095). The authors would like to thank the support of the Young Backbone Teacher Cultivating Project of Jiangsu University.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Micro-Nano Optoelectronic and Terahertz Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Li-jing Huang, Gao-ming Zhang & Bao-jia Li

  2. School of Materials Science and Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Huang Li, Bao-jia Li & Yong-ying Wang

  3. School of Mechanical Engineering, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Li-jing Huang, Gao-ming Zhang & Nai-fei Ren

  4. Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of Center for Photon Manufacturing Science and Technology, Jiangsu University, Zhenjiang, 212013, People’s Republic of China

    Li-jing Huang, Gao-ming Zhang, Huang Li, Bao-jia Li, Yong-ying Wang & Nai-fei Ren

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  1. Li-jing Huang
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Huang, Lj., Zhang, Gm., Li, H. et al. Selective laser ablation and patterning on Ag thin films with width and depth control. J Mater Sci: Mater Electron 31, 4943–4955 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10854-020-03061-y

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