Effect of Relative Intensity of 5 eV Atomic Oxygen and 172 nm Vacuum Ultraviolet in the Synergism of Polyimide Erosion

Abstract

A quantitative study of the synergistic effect of 5 eV atomic oxygen and 172 nm vacuum ultraviolet radiation exposure was carried out on polyimide samples. The relative intensity of atomic oxygen and ultraviolet was adjusted by rotating the polyimide sample at the crossover point of the beam axes of atomic oxygen and ultraviolet which crossed 900. The erosion rate of polyimide was calculated from the resonant frequency of the quartz crystal microbalance on which the polyimide was spin-coated. It was confirmed that the ultraviolet exposure to the atomic oxygen-exposed polyimide promoted the desorption of carbon oxides from the surface. In contrast, no mass change was detected when ultraviolet irradiated the polyimide surface without atomic oxygen exposure. By changing the relative intensity of atomic oxygen and ultraviolet, increases in erosion rates up to 400% were observed when the relative ultraviolet/atomic oxygen flux intensity reached 10-14 mJ atom-l.

Keywords

Atomic oxygen ultraviolet synergism lowearthorbit space environment

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