Triazene photopolymer dynamic release layer-assisted femtosecond laser-induced forward transfer with an active carrier substrate

¹  Optoelectronics Research Centre, University of Southampton - Southampton SO17 1BJ, UK, EU
²  General Energy Research Department, Paul Scherrer Institut - 5232 Villigen PSI, Switzerland
³  EMPA, Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research, Laboratory for Functional Polymers Überlandstrasse 129, 8600 Dübendorf, Switzerland

Corresponding author: dpb@orc.soton.ac.uk

Received: 18 March 2008
Accepted: 13 June 2008

Abstract

Discs of solid material have been forward transferred from thin films on transparent carrier substrates using femtosecond Ti:sapphire laser-induced forward transfer (fs-LIFT) with a triazene polymer dynamic release layer (DRL). The fluence threshold for fs-LIFT was found to be only ≈20% of the DRL ablation threshold at the laser wavelength. This decrease is attributed to ultrafast shock-wave generation in the constrained polymer layer under femtosecond irradiation being the driving force for fs-LIFT with the polymer DRL. The result is very different from the nanosecond regime, where the LIFT threshold is observed to be slightly above the polymer ablation threshold. White-light continuum generation in a carrier substrate is observed and its influence on the fs-LIFT process is discussed.