Influence of inert gas pressure on deposition rate during pulsed laser deposition

The deposition rates of permalloy and Ag are monitored during pulsed laser deposition in different inert gas atmospheres. Under ultrahigh vacuum conditions, resputtering from the film surface occurs due to the presence of energetic particles in the plasma plume. With increasing gas pressure, a reduction of the particle energy is accompanied with a decrease of resputtering and a rise in the deposition rate for materials with high sputtering yield. In contrast, at higher gas pressures, scattering of ablated material out of the deposition path between target and substrate is observed, leading to a decrease in the deposition rate. While in the case of Xe and Ar these processes strongly overlap, they are best separated in He. A He pressure of about 0.4 mbar should be used to reduce the kinetic energy of the deposited particles, to reach the maximum deposition rate and to avoid implantation of the particles. This is helpful for the preparation of stoichiometric metallic alloy films and multilayers with sharp interfaces. Received: 27 March 2002 / Accepted: 3 April 2002 / Published online: 5 July 2002