Laser surface cleaning and potential applications in disk drive industry

Laser cleaning has emerged as an effective cleaning technique for removing contaminants from solid surfaces. Dry laser cleaning and steam laser cleaning have been developed recently, relying on pulsed laser heating of the surface without and with the presence of a thin liquid coating. A cleaning model was established for removal of particles from solid surfaces by taking Van der Waals force, capillary force and cleaning force into account. The model can not only explain the influence of laser fluence on cleaning efficiency, but also predict the cleaning thresholds. Laser-induced removal of film-type contaminants from solid surfaces has been studied. Laser cleaning mechanisms and its applications in disk drive industry will be discussed in this article.