Laser-Induced Melting of Thin Conducing Films: Part II—Heat-Dissipating Substrates

We study the application of pulsed laser radiation in the melting of thin conducting films deposited on heat-dissipating substrates. This situation is markedly different then encountered in the adiabatic system. Real applications involve conducting films deposited on thin insulating films grown on conductive substrates such as silicon. The heat flow from the conducting film to the silicon substrate must be accounted for in attempting to describe real deletive and additive laser-induced processes. The present model makes use of the observed thermal profiles in aluminum in the adiabatic approximation discussed in part I. We assume a constant temperature profile along the normal to the surface of the conducting film. This allows us to obtain closed-form analytic expressions for the important thermal quantities of the combined system. Good agreement between theory and experiment is obtained.