Nanoparticle removal from substrates with pulsed-laser induced plasma and shock waves

Abstract Removing particles with nanometer scale diameters from substrates is a challenging task with numerous critical applications. A novel removal method for nanoparticles is developed and tested. The technique, which is dry and non-contact, takes advantages of shock wavefronts initiated by plasma formation under a focused laser beam pulse and its interaction with the substrate. Experimental results indicate that silica particles down to 500 nm on silicon wafers can be removed without substrate damage. In the reported experiments, a Q-switched Nd : YAG pulsed laser with a 5-ns pulse width and 360-mJ pulse energy at 1064 nm wavelength is employed as a plasma generation source. It is reported that the traditional dry laser cleaning method based on the rapid thermal expansion under direct laser irradiation often results in surface damage in the nanometer scale due to light diffraction around nanoparticles and/or stress localization in the thermal skin. This occurs when the characteristic dimensions of the particles are comparable to the wavelength of incident beam. In the laser plasma method, various mechanisms are responsible for the removal effect. The strong shock wave in air generates complex pressure wavefields resulting in both drag/lift on the particle and acceleration of the substrate. However, shock waves are not transmitted to the solid substrate due to a large difference between the relevant wave phase speeds in the two media. The effects of the number of shots and the distance between the surface and the plasma boundary on the removal efficiency are reported. Keywords: PARTICLE REMOVALNANOPARTICLESLASER ULTRASONICSLASER CLEANINGMICRO-MANUFACTURINGNANO-MANUFACTURINGLASER INDUCED PLASMA