UV-laser-induced etching and metal seeding on polymers; a surface characterization

Results of UV 308 nm.laser pulse induced dry etching with subsequent Pd deposition from a PdCl2 solution acid base with pHs1. on polyimide surface are reported. The surface roughness has been determined before and after illumination. The fractal-based examination techniques based on the area–perimeter and the structure function methods. It could be concluded that the preetching of the polyimide surface significantly enhances the flux of Pd atoms deposited onto the surface, which is a power function of the number of shots 30 mJrcm2 at 20 ns pulse duration. with a power coefficient close to 0.5. It has been observed that the seeding process started simultaneously at a number of places resulting in island-like deposits. Fractal characterisation of surfaces resulted in a fractal dimension changing between 2.28 and 2.71 carried out with the methods outlined earlier. It might be concluded that the seeding process occurs at atomic scale, but it exhibits a very strong trend towards the formation of aggregates andror cluster-type structures. q1999 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.