Ablation characteristics of pre-heated region in laser line scanning process

The conditions for obtaining a completely connected ablated line on a Ag nanoparticle (NP) layer were inves-tigated. In the scanning ablation process, the area pre-heated by a previous laser pulse is sintered, and its physical properties are changed. We examined the line patterning of AgNP layers at different sintering temperatures. The ablation thresholds of AgNP layers that were dried, sintered at 150 degrees C, and sintered at 200 degrees C were 0.211, 0.536, and 1.84 J/cm2, respectively. Some of the line patterns in the AgNP layers were not completely ablated when the applied laser fluence was higher than the ablation threshold fluence for each AgNP layer. A higher fluence was needed to form an ablated line properly. The line ablation threshold was approximately two to four times the ablation threshold. The ablated linewidth at the line ablation threshold was similar for all sintering temperatures.