Visible laser cleaning of charcoal particulates from yellow acid mechanical ground wood cellulose paper was compared with that from bleached sulphite softwood cellulose paper. About one order of magnitude of fluence range is available for a cleaning dynamics between the cleaning threshold and the destruction threshold for two laser pulses. Wood cellulose paper exhibited a higher destruction threshold of the original paper than that of the contaminated specimen because of heat transfer from the hot or evaporating charcoal particulates. In contrast, the contaminated bleached cellulose paper exhibited a higher destruction threshold due to shading by the particulates. The graphite particles are not only detached thermo-mechanically, but also by evaporation or combustion. A cleaning effect was found also outside the illuminated areas due to lateral blasting. Infrared measurements revealed dehydration/dehydrogenation reactions and cross-links by ether bonds together with structural changes of the cellulose chain arrangement and the degree of crystallinity. (C) 2013 Elsevier B. V. All rights reserved.

The mechanisms of graphite particle and polystyrene-co-divinyl benzene microsphere removal from flat polycarbonate substrates by nanosecond pulse laser interaction at 532 nm were studied both experimentally and theoretically. These model contaminants exhibited an extremely contrasting behavior in respect to phase separation and collateral damage to the polycarbonate substrate. Opaque graphite particles within the irradiated spot area either desorbed due to their thermal expansion or undertook vaporization/ablation. The transparent polystyrene microspheres caused local ablation of the substrate in their optical near-field. This process led to the removal of the particles, but eradicated the available cleaning fluence window. The opaque graphite particles, on the other hand, showed efficient clearance, particularly in a practicable cleaning window above 0.5 J/cm(2) and low pulse numbers of about two. Besides the mechanisms occurring within the irradiated spot, a separation process in the proximity beyond the laser spot (more than double the Gaussian radius) could be related to the action of high-amplitude surface acoustic waves (SAW). A minimum surface acceleration of 10(9) cm/s(2) was calculated to be sufficient to overcome the adhesion forces in this particle separation model.

The separation mechanism of opaque and transparent model micro-particles, graphite and polystyrene copolymer spheres, respectively, from polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) substrates were investigated employing a ns-pulse laser radiating at 532 nm. The particles transparent in the visible wavelength range could be removed from PMMA efficiently in a very narrow fluence range between 1 and 2 J/cm(2) according to a simple 1D thermal expansion model. Above this fluence region, with single pulses, the transparent microspheres caused local ablation of the PMMA substrate in the optical microlens nearfield. This process led to removal of the particles themselves due to the expansion of the ablation plasma. The irregularly shaped graphite particles shaded the underlying substrate from the incoming radiation so that no optical nearfield damage mechanism could be observed. Therefore, a substantial cleaning window between 0.5 and more than 16 J/cm(2) was provided. The graphite data suggest an ablation mechanism of the particulates themselves due to a high optical absorption coefficient.

The laser-induced phase separation of charcoal particles on additive-free cotton linters cellulose paper was investigated by electron and optical microscopy, colorimetry, and diffuse reflectance FT-IR. The fibre bundles were vaporised in depth of several 10 μm above destruction fluence thresholds using visible 532 nm radiation. This is in contrast to mid-ultraviolet 213 nm radiation, where only the top fibre bundles were modified and partially evaporated. The colorimetric lightness results generally represented the cleaning status, whereas the colorimetric yellowing data represented irreversible chemical and/or photochemical changes. Charcoal-contaminated paper treated with visible and mid-ultraviolet radiation exhibited yellowing, whereas uncontaminated did not. This suggests that the electron-rich plasma generated by the evaporation of the particles heats the adjacent substrate and also excludes oxygen. Mid-ultraviolet, in contrast to visible radiation, shows particle removal always accompanied by paper destruction. IR spectroscopy results suggest cross-linking by ether bonds near the destruction threshold, but do not prove the formation of oxidation products and double bonds as the basis of the yellowing. A “cleaning window” between the cleaning threshold (0.1 J/cm2) and the paper destruction threshold (2.9 J/cm2) with a pulse number of 2 is provided by visible 532 nm laser treatment.