ABSTRACT
Recently, laser-particle-surface interaction has attracted considerable interest in both experimental and theoretical studies. There are three main impetuses for this: first, as the dimensions of active elements shrink drastically in IC and highdensity hard disk manufacturing, even a sub-micrometer particle may induce fatal damages to the whole system. In the process to remove a particle, both the inertial force m x containing mass m°^ R 3 (R is radius of the particle) and the adhesion force l \ulh R arc involved. Therefore, the necessary acceleration to remove the
particle is given by x R~2 [1 ], Typically, it is about 107 times higher than the
gravity force for a l - |L im particle [2]. Traditional cleaning methods, such as hy drodynamic jet and ultrasonic vibration, cannot remove small particles efficiently. Fortunately, pulsed laser heating of absorptive particles or substrates can produce such high acceleration [3-26]. Second, due to the simplicity of the laser-particlesurface system, it can be applied to the study of the particle adhesion and defor mation on a solid substrate [27-31]. Third, fascinating physics arise in laser clean ing associated with near-field focusing of laser by particles with sizes comparable to laser wavelengths [17-21].
