Experimental Study on the Process of Excimer Laser-enhanced Electrochemical Etching of Metal
Y-H. Long, X-M. Li, L-C. Xiong, D-F. Zou and T-L. Shi
To further understand the behaviour of excimer laser-induced electrochemical etching of metal, experiments with 248 nm KrF excimer laser-enhanced electrochemical etching metals in the solutions of H2SO4 and NaCl were carried out. The curves of anode current were recorded and analysed. It shows that the currents increase obviously during the laser irradiating and decrease quickly without the laser and the enhancing characteristics of different metals in excimer laser-enhanced electrochemical etching processes are different. Simultaneously, the etching of nickel and copper were carried out by using the effect of current enhancements. Experiment results proved that there are laser direct etching and laser-enhanced electrochemical etching in the process of excimer laser electrochemical etching, the etch rate is low and there is a larger transverse etching on the metal surface.
Keywords: KrF excimer laser, electrochemical etching, metal, nickel, copper