As you know, the polymeric materials have two different behaviors under laser beam irradiation, some polymers melt and some of them evaporate. This phenomenon is directly dependent on TGA of polymers. I have been working on PS properties under laser irradiation and it shows melting mechanism. You can get mor information in following paper:
This looks like simple photo-oxidation to me. This is a free radical chain reaction that takes place in the presence of light and oxygen. The initiation step involves the addition of singlet oxygen, or the decomposition of hydroperoxide impurities depending on the wavelength of the light source.
Thanks. Peter Farrington and Ayob Karimzad. The mechanism of restructuring, either binding and scissoring, are simultaneously happened, but later more binding is prefferred, thus making the polymer chains to restructured from Amorphous to crystallize. We are focus on the end product, which is carbonaceous materials, and longer duration created diamond-like Carbon, which can be an interesting materials. Photo-Oxidation is part of the answers, nevertheless, the focus is applying this simple technique in fabricating devices.
The ultimate products of photo-oxidation are carbon dioxide and water, I don't think the yield of "carbonaceous material' will be very high. If you are assuming that the phenyl groups will not be oxidised, you are in for a surprise.
If you read the articles, you'll be surprised as Diamond-like Carbon can be formed by overexposure of laser irradiation. We are now looking into its conductivity and if it is having higher conductivity, we will later used it as electronic devices.One thing extraordinary of this work, we could pattern the Diamond-like Carbon, which other techniques will not have this advantage.