The effect of a plasma‐surface interaction on the adhesion force of a thin metal film was investigated using a bilayer system consisting of a TeSeF film and a fluorocarbon subbing layer. The change in an ablative hole opening process with a focused laser beam in this bilayer system was also affected by the modification of the adhesion force due to the plasma‐surface interaction. An Ar plasma treatment of the fluorocarbon subbing layers prior to the TeSeF film deposition increased the adhesion force and the threshold energy for the ablative hole opening. Even without such intentional plasma treatment, the interface chemical structure depended on the plasma‐surface interaction during the TeSeF active layer deposition, where the active layer was deposited by the rf or dc reactive sputtering of TeSe in a SeF6/Ar gaseous mixture. The rf sputtered TeSeF film required larger threshold energy for hole opening than the dc sputtered one. The modified interface chemical structure by the plasma‐surface interaction was analyzed using x‐ray photoelectron spectroscopy. The increase in the threshold energy for hole opening for the plasma‐treated subbing layer and for the rf sputtered TeSeF film was due to the increase in the cross‐linking density in the fluorocarbon polymer, unsaturated bonds, and dangling bonds at the interface in the bilayer system. ©1995 American Institute of Physics.