WANG Li Yong, a doctoral student of our center (first author) and Professor ZHENG Hongyu (corresponding author), published a paper entitled “A Comparative Study of Laser-Induced Graphene by CO2 Infrared Laser and 355nm Ultraviolet(UV) Laser” in Micromachines.

Laser-induced graphene(LIG) is an emerging technique for producing few-layer graphene or graphene-like material that has recently received increasing attention, due to its unique advantages. Subsequently, a variety of lasers and materials have been used to fabricate LIG using this technique. However, there is a lack of understanding of how different lasers(wavelengths)perform differently in the LIG conversion process. In this study, the produced LIG on polyimide (PI) under a locally water-cooled condition using a 10.6 µm CO2 infrared laser and a 355 nm ultraviolet (UV) laser are compared. Energy dispersive spectrometry and three-dimensional topography characterization indicate that the photochemical effects were also involved in the LIG conversion with UV laser irradiation. It is also observed through experiments that the photo thermal effect contributed to the formation of LIG under both lasers, and the LIG formed on PI substrates by the CO2 laser showed better quality and fewer layers.