Damage profile of HDPE polymer using laser-induced plasma

Abstract

In this paper we studied the laser-induced crater depth, mass, and emission spectra of laser-ablated high-density polyethylene (HDPE) polymer using the laser-induced plasma spectroscopy (LIPS) technique. This study was performed using a Nd:YAG laser with 100 mJ energy and 7 ns pulse width, focused normal to the surface of the sample. The nanoscale change in ablated depth versus number of laser pulses was studied. By using scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, the crater depth and ablated mass were estimated. The LIPS spectral intensities were observed for major and minor elements with depth. The comparison between the LIPS results and SEM images showed that LIPS could be used to estimate the crater depth, which is of interest for some applications such as thin-film lithography measurements and online measurements of thickness in film deposition techniques.