Laser-induced metal reduction from liquid electrolyte precursor.
A special sort of laser methods such as direct writing of metal and thin film deposition from liquid precursors was developed for the surface processing and the localized metallization of different kinds of materials. Laser radiation initiates the chemical reaction resulted in the reduction of the metal complexes to the metals in the liquid electrolyte, followed by the metal deposition on the substrate with a high degree of the adhesion. In this study, continuous wave of Ar+ laser generated in multiwave regime with laser power from 5 to 500 mW was chosen for the Copper reduction and deposition on SiO2 substrate. In order to investigate the effect of salt precursors on the properties of the deposited structures, two kinds of electrolyte solution were prepared on the base of CuSO4 and CuCl2. It was shown that metal deposition can be initiated at the laser power of 50 mW. The width of the deposits was found to be substantially dependent on the applied laser power. Deposits were revealed as conductive layers and the resistance of the layers depends strongly on the solution temperature and the salt precursor.