Laser cleaning of surface contaminants

Two general modes of laser-induced cleaning techniques, steam laser cleaning and dry laser cleaning, are investigated. The first mode utilizes pulsed laser heating to cause rapid explosive evaporation of a micron-thick liquid film deposited on the surface just before flash heating. The removal of contaminant particles is caused by a strong acoustic wave generated by the explosion. The second mode relies on thermal shock, bond breaking, or ablative photodecomposition of the contaminant on the surface.