Infrared steam laser cleaning

Steam Laser Cleaning with a pulsed infrared laser source is investigated. The infrared light is tuned to the absorption maximum of water (lambda=2.94 mu m, 10 ns), whereas the substrates used are transparent (glass, silicon). Thus a thin liquid water layer condensed on top of the contaminated substrate is rapidly heated. The pressure generated during the subsequent phase explosion generates a cleaning force which exceeds the adhesion of the particles. We examine the cleaning threshold in single shot experiments for particles sized from 1 mu m down to 300 nm.