Laser sintering of silver nanoparticles deposited by dry aerosol printing

This work is devoted to the sintering of silver nanoparticle arrays in the form of lines by the local treatment with laser radiation with wavelengths of 527, 1054 and 1064 nm in pulsed and continuous laser modes. The silver nanoparticle lines were formed by the dry aerosol printing, free from organic solvents and surfactants. To form the lines with a width of 25-300 μm and a thickness of 0.1-15 μm a focused stream of nanoparticles with an average size of about 60 nm was used. It is shown that when using continuous laser radiation with a wavelength of 1064 nm, the minimal specific resistance of silver nanoparticle lines was achieved 3 times higher than that for the bulk material was reached.