Fundamental research to improve understanding of adhesion of metallic films to ceramic substrates using pulsed laser radiation will be conducted. A special feature of the research is the principle of laser enhanced adhesion. It is proposed to extend the results of previous work to other metals and ceramics, and to systematically explore the atomic level aspects of the phenomena to gain an understanding of the elementary basis for laser-enhanced adhesion. %%% This research is expected to provide deeper fundamental understanding of basic properties of thin films important to the functionality of electronic/photonic materials and particular compositional and structural combinations and configurations relevant to microelectronic circuitry packaging. From an application point of view, understanding these properties and their relationship to materials synthesis and processing is highly beneficial to semiconductor circuit design and fabrication. The results will be of importance in a general way to the technology of large scale, high speed integrated electronic and photonic devices and circuits.
