LASER-SURFACE CLEANING IN AIR - MECHANISMS AND APPLICATIONS

Surface contaminations are removed by laser irradiation with pulse out put and short wavelength in ambient air. It is a dry cleaning process to remove surface contaminations without using ultrasonic cleaning req uiring carbon fluorochloride and other organic solvents. The mechanism s of laser cleaning may include laser photodecomposition, laser ablati on and surface vibration due to the impact of the laser pulse. Example s of cleaning metal surfaces and magnetic head sliders show that this cleaning process could be widely used in various industrial applicatio ns.