High-speed laser printing of silver nanoparticles ink

Abstract

We use the laser-induced forward transfer technique to print at high-speed long lines of metallic nanoparticle ink. A picosecond laser emitting at 343 nm with a repetition rate of 500 kHz is used to realize series of droplets and continuous lines by varying the distance between successive laser pulses. We find this latter parameter to be critical to obtain droplets of good quality, and use a time-resolved imaging technique to study its effects on the ink ejection. Single pass, two-pass and three-pass laser printing have been investigated. We have printed millimeter-long continuous silver lines of 20 μm width and thinner than 500 nm, at velocities up to 4 m/s. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using high repetition rate laser for the fast and reliable printing of conductive lines.