High quality ArF laser ablation of photoincubated polyethylene

The interaction of ArF excimer laser radiation with polyethylene has been investigated using HeNe laser probe beam deflection, energy transmission of thin films, and scanning electron microscopy of the irradiated site. The ‘‘incubation’’ of ultraviolet absorbing chromophores by photoinduced modification appears to play a major role in controlling ablation of this weakly absorbing polymer (∼500 cm−1 at 193 nm). Analytical solution of the photon transport equation including an integrated exposure term to account for incubation provides a good description of the transmission results.