8 Studies on laser ablation of polymers

Abstract

This report reviews papers, which were published since the beginning of 2004, and focuses on works related to “pure” laser ablation of polymers rather than closely related topics such as ablation of biological tissues, laser cleaning of painted artworks, polymer films pulsed laser deposition, matrix assisted laser desorption ionization, and ablation of molecular solids and liquids, although some overlapping with the above subjects, which constitute now separate fields, is inevitable. Papers devoted to both application of laser ablation of polymers and study of fundamentals of the process are considered. In concluding remarks, the state of the art in modeling of laser ablation of polymers is discussed.