Enhancement of coercivity with reduced grain size in CoCrPt film grown by pulsed laser deposition

We report a pulsed laser deposition (PLD) growth of VMn/CoCrPt bilayer with a magnetic coercivity (H_c) of 2.2 kOe and a grain size of 12 nm. The effects of VMn underlayer on magnetic properties of CoCrPt layer were studied. The coercivity, H_c, and squareness, S, of VMn/CoCrPt bilayer, is dependent on the thickness of VMn. The grain size of the CoCrPt film can also be modified by laser parameters. High laser fluence used for CoCrPt deposition produces a smaller grain size. Enhanced H_c and reduced grain size in VMn/CoCrPt is explained by more pronounced surface phase segregation during deposition at high laser fluence.     

Au cluster growth on ZnO thin films by pulsed laser deposition

Nanostructures formed by Au nanoparticles on ZnO thin film surface are of interest for applications which include medical implants, gas-sensors, and catalytic systems. A frequency tripled Nd:YAG laser (λ = 355 nm, τ_FWHM ∼ 10 ns) was used for the successive irradiation of the Zn and Au targets. The ZnO films were synthesized in 20 Pa oxygen pressure while the subsequent Au coverage was grown in vacuum. The obtained structures surface morphology, crystalline quality, and chemical composition depth profile were investigated by acoustic (dynamic) mode atomic force microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and wavelength dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The surface is characterized by a granular morphology, with average grain diameters of a few tens of nanometers. The surface roughness decreases with the increase of the number of laser pulses applied for the irradiation of the Au target. The Au coverage reveals a predominant (1 1 1) texture, whereas the underlying ZnO films are c-axis oriented. A linear dependence was established between the thickness of the Au coverage and the number of laser pulses applied for the irradiation of the Au target.     

Effects of deposition temperature on the structural and morphological properties of thin ZnO films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

ZnO thin films were grown on Si(1 0 0) substrates using pulsed laser deposition in O₂ gas ambient (10 Pa) and at different substrate temperatures (25, 150, 300 and 400 °C). The influence of the substrate temperature on the structural and morphological properties of the films was investigated using XRD, AFM and SEM. At substrate temperature of T=150 °C, a good quality ZnO film was fabricated that exhibits an average grain size of 15.1 nm with an average RMS roughness of 3.4 nm. The refractive index and the thickness of the thin films determined by the ellipsometry data are also presented and discussed.     

Biocompatible film deposition by using Nd:YAG pulsed laser

A Nd:YAG laser operating at the fundamental wavelength (1064 nm) and at the second harmonic (532 nm), with 9 ns pulse duration, 100–900 mJ pulse energy, and 30 Hz repetition rate mode, was employed to ablate in vacuum (10^?6 mbar) biomaterial targets and to deposit thin films on substrate backings. Titanium target was ablated at the fundamental frequency and deposited on near-Si substrates. The ablation yield increases with the laser fluence and at 40 J/cm ² the ablation yield for titanium is 1.2×10¹⁶ atoms/pulse. Thin film of titanium was deposited on silicon substrates placed at different distance and angles with respect to the target and analysed with different surface techniques (optical microscopy, scanning electron spectrosopy (SEM), and surface profile).

Hydroxyapatite (HA) target was ablated to the second harmonic and thin films were deposited on Ti and Si substrates. The ablation yield at a laser fluence of 10 J/cm ² is about 5×10¹⁴ HA molecules/pulse. Thin film of HA, deposited on silicon substrates placed at different distance and angles with respect to the target, was analysed with different surface techniques (optical microscopy, SEM, and Raman spectroscopy).

Metallic films show high uniformity and absence of grains, whereas the bio-ceramic film shows a large grain size distribution. Both films found special application in the field of biomaterial coverage.     

Fabrication of p-type Li-doped ZnO films by pulsed laser deposition

p-Type ZnO thin films have been realized via doping Li as acceptor by using pulsed laser deposition. In our experiment, Li₂CO₃ was used as Li precursor, and the growth temperature was varied from 400 to 600 °C in pure O₂ ambient. The Li-doped ZnO film prepared at 450 °C possessed the lowest resistivity of 34 Ω cm with a Hall mobility of 0.134 cm² V⁻¹ s⁻¹ and hole concentration of 1.37 × 10¹⁸ cm⁻³. X-ray diffraction (XRD) measurements showed that the Li-doped ZnO films grown at different substrate temperatures were of completely (0 0 2)-preferred orientation.     

Radio-frequency assisted pulsed laser deposition of nanostructured WOx films

The synthesis of tungsten oxide films with large surface area is promising for gas sensing applications. Thin WO_x films were obtained by radio-frequency assisted pulsed laser deposition (RF-PLD). A tungsten target was ablated at 700 and 900 Pa in reactive oxygen, or in a 50% mixed oxygen-helium atmosphere at the same total pressure values. Corning glass was used as substrate, at temperatures including 673, 773 and 873 K. Other deposition parameters such as laser fluence (4.5 J cm⁻²), laser wavelength (355 nm), radiofrequency power (150 W), target to substrate distance (4 cm), laser spot area (0.7 mm²), and number of laser shots (12,000) were kept fixed. The sensitivity on the deposition conditions of morphology, nanostructure, bond coordination, and roughness of the obtained films were analyzed by scanning and transmission electron microscopy, micro-Raman spectroscopy, and atomic force microscopy.     

Effects of deposition temperature on the structural and morphological properties of SnO2 films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

Tin oxide (SnO₂) thin films were grown on Si (1 0 0) substrates using pulsed laser deposition (PLD) in O₂ gas ambient (10 Pa) and at different substrate temperatures (RT, 150, 300 and 400 °C). The influence of the substrate temperature on the structural and morphological properties of the films was investigated using X-ray diffraction (XRD), atomic force microscopy (AFM) and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). XRD measurements showed that the almost amorphous microstructure transformed into a polycrystalline SnO₂ phase. The film deposited at 400 °C has the best crystalline properties, i.e. optimum growth conditions. However, the film grown at 300 °C has minimum average root mean square (RMS) roughness of 3.1 nm with average grain size of 6.958 nm. The thickness of the thin films determined by the ellipsometer data is also presented and discussed.     

Investigation of transmittance property of Palladium thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition with polarization using single layer model

In this paper the structure, morphology and optical properties of Pd thin films deposited on glass substrate by pulse laser deposition technique at two different substrate temperatures have been investigated. The fabricated films were characterized by various methods such as XRD, AFM, and UV-vis-NIR spectroscopy. The influence of surface roughness and angle of incidence with p polarization was investigated experimentally by optical property of palladium (Pd) thin films of two different thicknesses and rms roughness from transmission measurement in the visible spectral range. It has been shown that the experimental transmittance spectra agree well with their theoretical values for absorbing Pd thin film. The transmittance of thin film increases with increase in incident angle for the same sample.     

Homogeneous films by inverse pulsed laser deposition

Recently, we proposed an alternative arrangement to traditional on- or off-axis PLD geometries, termed inverse PLD (IPLD) that is capable of producing films of improved surface morphology. Two configurations of this new target-substrate arrangement were developed, namely static and co-rotating IPLD. In the static IPLD configuration, the substrate is stationary with respect to the ablated spot; while in the co-rotating IPLD configuration the substrate is fixed to the target surface and rotates simultaneously with the target, hence offering an appealingly simple approach to homogenize film properties.Here we report the growth of CN_x and Ti films, simultaneously deposited in the co-rotating and static IPLD arrangements. The homogeneity of the co-rotating films is described by a thickness inhomogeneity index, which allows for the comparison of films of different lateral dimension. A semi-analytical, semi-numerical model is proposed to derive the radial variation of the growth rate of co-rotating IPLD films from the lateral growth rate distributions measured along the symmetry axes of static IPLD films. The laterally averaged growth rate, LAGR is used to describe how the ambient pressure affects growth in the 0.5-50 Pa domain. As an example, the absolute error between the measured and calculated radial growth rate variation, obtained at 5 Pa, was less than 3%, while the LAGR of CN_x layers grown by co-rotating IPLD was predicted with 20% accuracy.     

Characterization of polymer thin films obtained by pulsed laser deposition

The development of laser techniques for the deposition of polymer and biomaterial thin films on solid surfaces in a controlled manner has attracted great attention during the last few years. Here we report the deposition of thin polymer films, namely Polyepichlorhydrin by pulsed laser deposition. Polyepichlorhydrin polymer was deposited on flat substrate (i.e. silicon) using an NdYAG laser (266 nm, 5 ns pulse duration and 10 Hz repetition rate).The obtained thin films have been characterized by atomic force microscopy, scanning electron microscopy, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and spectroscopic ellipsometry.It was found that for laser fluences up to 1.5 J/cm² the chemical structure of the deposited polyepichlorhydrin polymer thin layers resembles to the native polymer, whilst by increasing the laser fluence above 1.5 J/cm² the polyepichlorohydrin films present deviations from the bulk polymer.Morphological investigations (atomic force microscopy and scanning electron microscopy) reveal continuous polyepichlorhydrin thin films for a relatively narrow range of fluences (1-1.5 J/cm²).The wavelength dependence of the refractive index and extinction coefficient was determined by ellipsometry studies which lead to new insights about the material.The obtained results indicate that pulsed laser deposition method is potentially useful for the fabrication of polymer thin films to be used in applications including electronics, microsensor or bioengineering industries.     

Enhanced dielectric permittivity in poly (vinylidene) fluoride/multiwalled carbon nanotubes nanocomposite thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

The fabrication of high quality thin films of poly (vinylidene fluoride) embedded with multiwalled carbon nanotubes using pulsed laser deposition technique is reported. The prepared films were characterized for structural, morphology and dielectric properties. The morphology analysis revealed uniform dispersion of multiwalled carbon nanotubes throughout the polymer matrix. X-ray diffraction results suggested that the poly (vinylidene fluoride) film is in amorphous phase while addition of multiwalled carbon nanotubes showed presence of crystalline peaks in the nanocomposites films. It was interesting to note that the nanocomposite films exhibits significant enhancement of the ferroelectric β-phase as evidenced by the X-ray diffraction and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy results. The dielectric analysis shows a remarkable enhancement in the dielectric permittivity of nanocomposites with lower loss and conductivity level. The results can be attributed to the formation of minicapacitor network and relatively higher percolation threshold in the nanocomposites.     

脉冲激光气相沉积法制备钴纳米薄膜实验研究

 采用脉冲激光沉积技术制备了钴纳米薄膜，分析和讨论了不同背景气压和脉冲频率对钴纳米薄膜表面形貌的影响及纳米微粒的形成机理。实验结果表明：在低背景气压下，等离子体羽辉自身粒子之间的碰撞占主导作用，容易形成液滴；在较高背景气压下，等离子体羽辉边缘粒子和背景气体粒子之间的碰撞占主导作用，容易形成小岛并凝聚成微颗粒；在4Hz的脉冲重复频率和5Pa背景气压下生长出单分散性良好的钴纳米颗粒。     

Bioactive glass and hydroxyapatite thin films obtained by pulsed laser deposition

Bioactive glass (BG), calcium hydroxyapatite (HA), and ZrO₂ doped HA thin films were grown by pulsed laser deposition on Ti substrates. An UV KrF^* (λ = 248 nm, τ ≥ 7 ns) excimer laser was used for the multi-pulse irradiation of the targets. The substrates were kept at room temperature or heated during the film deposition at values within the (400-550 °C) range. The depositions were performed in oxygen and water vapor atmospheres, at pressure values in the range (5-40 Pa). The HA coatings were heat post-treated for 6 h in a flux of hot water vapors at the same temperature as applied during deposition. The surface morphology, chemical composition, and crystalline quality of the obtained thin films were studied by scanning electron microscopy, atomic force microscopy, and X-ray diffractometry. The films were seeded for in vitro tests with Hek293 (human embryonic kidney) cells that revealed a good adherence on the deposited layers. Biocompatibility tests showed that cell growth was better on HA than on BG thin films.     

Structural characterization of AlN films synthesized by pulsed laser deposition

We obtained AlN thin films by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) from a polycrystalline AlN target using a pulsed KrF* excimer laser source (248 nm, 25 ns, intensity of ∼4 × 10⁸ W/cm², repetition rate 3 Hz, 10 J/cm² laser fluence). The target-Si substrate distance was 5 cm. Films were grown either in vacuum (10⁻⁴ Pa residual pressure) or in nitrogen at a dynamic pressure of 0.1 and 10 Pa, using a total of 20,000 subsequent pulses. The films structure was characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM) and spectral ellipsometry (SE). Our TEM and XRD studies showed a strong dependence of the film structure on the nitrogen content in the ambient gas. The films deposited in vacuum exhibited a high quality polycrystalline structure with a hexagonal phase. The crystallite growth proceeds along the c-axis, perpendicular to the substrate surface, resulting in a columnar and strongly textured structure. The films grown at low nitrogen pressure (0.1 Pa) were amorphous as seen by TEM and XRD, but SE data analysis revealed ∼1.7 vol.% crystallites embedded in the amorphous AlN matrix. Increasing the nitrogen pressure to 10 Pa promotes the formation of cubic (≤10 nm) crystallites as seen by TEM but their density was still low to be detected by XRD. SE data analysis confirmed the results obtained from the TEM and XRD observations.     

An investigation into the effects of high laser fluence on hydroxyapatite/calcium phosphate films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

Pulsed laser deposited mixed hydroxyapatite (HA)/calcium phosphate thin films were prepared at room temperature using KrF laser source with different laser fluence varying between 2.4 J/cm² and 29.2 J/cm². Samples deposited at 2.4 J/cm² were partially amorphous and had rough surfaces with a lot of droplets while higher laser fluences showed higher level of crytallinity and lower roughness of surfaces of obtained samples. Higher laser fluences also decreased ratio Ca/P of as-deposited samples. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) revealed traces of carbonate groups in obtained samples, which were removed after thermal annealing. The decomposition of HA into TCP was observed to start at about 400 °C. The formation of new crystalline phase of HA was found after annealing as well. The cracks observed on surface of sample deposited at 29.2 J/cm² after annealing indicated that the HA/ calcium phosphate films deposited at higher laser energy densities were probably more densed.     

Picosecond nonlinear optical response of Ba0.5Sr0.5TiO3 thin films fabricated by pulsed laser deposition

Well-crystallized Ba_0.5Sr_0.5TiO₃ thin films with good surface morphology were prepared on MgO(1 0 0) substrates by pulsed laser deposition technique at a deposition temperature of 800 °C under the oxygen pressure of 2 × 10⁻³ Pa. X-ray diffraction and atomic force microscopy were used to characterize the films. The full width at half maximum of the (0 0 2) Ba_0.5Sr_0.5TiO₃ rocking curve and the root-mean-square surface roughness within the 5 μm × 5 μm area were 0.542° and 0.555 nm, respectively. The nonlinear optical properties of the films were determined by a single beam Z-scan method at a wavelength of 532 nm with laser duration of 55 ps. The results show that Ba_0.5Sr_0.5TiO₃ thin films exhibit a fast third-order nonlinear optical response with the nonlinear refractive index and nonlinear absorption coefficient being n₂ = 5.04 × 10⁻⁶ cm²/kW and β = 3.59 × 10⁻⁶ (m/W), respectively.     

Thermo-optical response of layered Bi nanostructures produced by pulsed laser deposition

This work reports optical transmission changes in layered Bi nanostructures (NSs) upon heating-cooling cycles up to temperatures above the melting temperature. The nanostructured films prepared by pulsed laser deposition consist of Bi NSs with different characteristic sizes that are organised in layers and embedded in an amorphous Al₂O₃ host. The spectral dependence of the optical transmission as well as its changes upon heating are reported. The combination of Bi NSs layers with more than one characteristic size allows controlling the width of the melting-solidification transition. Eventually, it is shown how a multiple temperature thermo-optical film can be designed and prepared.     

High temperature growth of InN on various substrates by plasma-assisted pulsed laser deposition

InN has attracted much attention due to its optical and electrical properties that make it suitable for the fabrication of infrared optical devices and high-speed electronic devices. In this work we report on the structural properties and morphology of InN thin films grown on different substrates by radiofrequency plasma beam assisted pulsed laser deposition. Sapphire and silicon substrates were considered for the growth of these films. The influence of substrate type and growth parameters on the morphology and structural properties of the resulting InN thin films is discussed. The structural analysis of the samples was performed by means of X-ray diffraction. The morphology of the thin films was investigated through atomic force microscopy. Although growth of InN from a metallic In target using nitrogen radiofrequency plasma assisted pulsed laser deposition was achieved for all the samples, growth conditions were found to play an important role on the crystal quality of the resulting thin films.     

Characteristics of ZrC/ZrN and ZrC/TiN multilayers grown by pulsed laser deposition

ZrC/ZrN and ZrC/TiN multilayers were grown on (1 0 0) Si substrates at 300 °C by the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique using a KrF excimer laser. X-ray diffraction investigations showed that films were crystalline, the strain and grain size depending on the nature and pressure of the gas used during deposition. The elemental composition, analyzed by Auger electron spectroscopy (AES) and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS), showed that films contained a low level of oxygen contamination. Simulations of the X-ray reflectivity (XRR) curves acquired from films indicated a smooth surface morphology, with roughness below 1 nm (rms) and densities very close to bulk values.Nanoindentation results showed that the ZrC/ZrN and ZrC/TiN multilayer samples exhibited hardness values between 30 and 33 GPa, slightly higher than the values of 28-30 GPa measured for pure ZrC, TiN and ZrN films.     

Properties of Zn3N2-doped ZnO films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

The optical properties of N-doped ZnO films grown by pulsed laser deposition are examined for which zinc nitride is used as the source of nitrogen. The motivation for this study is to determine if nitrogen-related acceptor state formation can be achieved in ZnO films using Zn₃N₂ doping in the ablation target. The films were deposited in oxygen or nitrogen on c-plane sapphire. Photoluminescence measurements at 20 K reveal a 3.31 eV acceptor-bound exciton emission due to nitrogen substitution on the oxygen site, donor-acceptor pair emission at 3.23 ± 1 eV and free electron-acceptor at 3.27 eV. The binding energy of the N-related acceptor is estimated to be in the range of 170-15 meV. While the as-deposited films were n-type, thermal annealing in oxygen yielded insulating behavior, consistent with compensating acceptor states.