Thermophoretic control of submicron-sized particulate recontamination

Thermophoresis is the movement of particles in a thermal gradient. It has t he advantages of being simple to set up and to carry out. Here, it is used to prevent the recontamination of emitted particles smaller than 0.5 mum du ring the dry laser cleaning of particles not chemically bound to the substr ate. Its use permits the efficiency of such dry laser cleaning to be greatl y improved. A comparison between the thermophoretic and laminar flow techni ques is carried out, showing that thermophoresis is more efficient.