Laser pulse duration dependence of blister formation on back-radiated Ti thin films for BB-LIFT

The influence of the laser pulse duration on the mechanism of blister formation in the particle transfer technique, blister-based laser-induced forward transfer, was investigated. Pulses from a fs Ti:Sapphire laser (120 fs, 800 nm) and from a ns Nd:YAG laser (7 ns, 532 nm) were used to directly compare blister formation on thin titanium films of ca. 300 nm thickness, deposited on glass. The different blister morphologies were compared and contrasted by using optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy. The results provide evidence for different blister formation mechanisms: for fs pulses the mechanism is predominantly ablation at the metal–glass interface accompanied by confined plasma expansion and deformation of the remaining metal film; for ns pulses it is heating accompanied by thermal expansion of the metal film.