Quasistatic thermo-optical changes of acrylonitride-butadiene-styrene surface induced by laser beam

Surface quality of plastic material acrylonitride-butadiene-styrene (ABS) in a polycarbonate (PC) blend was investigated by probing samples obtained from industry using a HeNe laser beam. Peculiar optical behaviour such as a dynamic speckle pattern formation from rough, and temporal self-diffraction from smooth ABS/PC surfaces was observed. The reason for the peculiar behaviour was observed to result from the laser-induced thermal gradient, which was detected by using an IR imaging radiometer.