Adhesion between thin Te‐based alloy films and fluorocarbon polymer sublayers, prepared by sputtering or plasma polymerization, was investigated by observing the 1 &mgr;m‐sized ablative hole opening process with a focused laser beam. Interpretations of the mechanisms for the change in energy required for the hole opening and pit geometry were based on the framework of studies of the ablative hole opening process for optical recording. Observations suggest that the molten material flow during the hole opening includes a ductile fracture and a viscous flow of the molten sublayer material as well as of active layer material. Adhesion acts as an energy barrier against the above mentioned flow of molten material during the hole opening process. Since the fluorocarbon films used in the present work had highly cross‐linked structures, the adhesion was mainly dominated by the dynamic force of adhesion. Therefore, the hole opening process was mainly affected by the dynamic force of adhesion rather than the static force, which is dominated by the surface energy of the sublayer. There was a good correlation between the dynamic force of adhesion estimated by the peel‐off strength and the concentrations of the ‐CF‐ and ‐C‐CF‐ structures estimated from C1sspectra obtained by x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.