Interaction of Laser Radiation with Organic Polymers

Organic polymers form a class of organic molecules of considerable technological importance in the field of materials processing. For this reason, their interactions with laser radiation have attracted attention from diverse groups of scientists who have studied these interactions from perspectives that have ranged from applied physics to surgery. Since the general field of ultraviolet-laser interactions with organic polymers has been reviewed more than once in recent years, it is the intention of this review to concentrate on developments that have taken place over the last five years and to include infrared-laser interactions with polymers in order to compare results which were obtained using different wavelengths of the laser.