Pulsed laser deposition for coating applications

Abstract

Excimer lasers provide the shortest commercially available wavelengths and correspondingly, the highest commercially, available photon energies for laser material processing. Depending on the laser gas the emission of excimer lasers covers a range of wavelengths from 351 nm down to 157 nm with the respective photon energies between 3,5 eV up to 7,9 eV. In conjunction with the high ultraviolet output energies of up to 1200 mJ per pulse, excimer laser ablation offers maximum flexibility in terms of the target material spectrum and the ablation area. Process stability and thin film quality in Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) experiments largely benefit from the exceptional pulse-to-pulse stability of the excimer laser radiation which is of the order of 0.5 % (1 sigma). The top-hat beam profile which is imaged on the sample minimizes fractionation during the ablation process and supports stoichiometric transfer from target to substrat enabling controlled thin film growth. © 2007 IOP Publishing Ltd.