Radiation curable thermal transfer elements

A method of imaging a donor film onto a receptor using alignment through a light-to-heat conversion layer of the donor film, comprising:

• providing a donor film comprising a substrate, a transfer layer, and a radiation curable light-to-heat conversion layer disposed between the substrate and the transfer layer in order to generate heat when the donor film is exposed to imaging radiation;
• aligning the donor film with a patterned receptor and a laser system, including placing the donor film in intimate contact with the patterned receptor, wherein the light-to-heat conversion layer comprises an NIR dye or pigment as an imaging radiation absorber material, wherein the imaging radiation absorber material does not substantially absorb in a region used for the radiation curing of the light-to-heat conversion layer, and wherein the imaging radiation absorber material has sufficient transparency in the visible region in order to perform the alignment through the light-to-heat conversion layer;
• imaging the donor film with the laser system in order to cause imagewise transfer of at least a portion of the transfer layer to the patterned receptor according to the alignment;
• maintaining registration between the donor film and the patterned receptor when performing the imaging along a particular imaging path;
• and
• removing the donor film from the patterned receptor.