Multilayered metal oxide thin film gas sensors obtained by conventional and RF plasma-assisted laser ablation

Multilayered thin films of In₂O₃ and SnO₂ have been deposited by conventional and RF plasma-assisted reactive pulsed laser ablation, with the aim to evaluate their behaviour as toxic gas sensors. The depositions have been carried out by a frequency doubled Nd-YAG laser (λ = 532 nm, τ = 7 ns) on Si(1 0 0) substrates, in O₂ atmosphere. The thin films have been characterized by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and electrical resistance measurements. A comparison of the electrical response of the simple (indium oxide, tin oxide) and multilayered oxides to toxic gas (nitric oxide, NO) has been performed. The influence on the structural and electrical properties of the deposition parameters, such as substrate temperature and RF power is reported.     

Compact waveguide CO2 laser excited by a RF power supply

The design and performance of radio frequency (RF) excited partial Z-fold waveguide CO2 laser with two channels are exposed. The length of the partial Z-fold channel is 3×460 mm and that of the single channel is 460 mm. The electrodes for the two channels are common and excited by a same RF source. According to our analysis, this kind of structure can greatly improve the laser offset frequency stability. In the experiments, we studied the variation of laser output power with gas pressure for two different channels.The maximum laser output power is about 23 W for the partial Z-fold channel and about 6 W for the single channel.     

Supersonic CO2 laser excited by RF discharge in closed cycle

A supersonic gas flow having a Mach number of 2 has been realized in a closed-cycle radio-frequency (RF)-discharge-excited supersonic CO₂ laser system. Stable RF discharge at a high CO₂ gas concentration has become possible using supersonic gas flow and RF discharge generated between dielectric electrodes. As a result, high RF input power density has been obtained. In addition, a high small-signal gain has been obtained in the supersonic section through decreases in gas pressure and gas temperature due to supersonic gas flow.This revised version was published online in August 2005 with a corrected cover date.     

RF excited diffusively cooled all-metal slab waveguide CO2 laser

In this paper, a new type of radio frequency (RF) excited diffusively cooled all-metal slab waveguide CO2 laser is presented, in which the waveguide channel is constructed by two aluminum side walls and two aluminum electrodes, the discharge is confined in the slab waveguide channel in terms of the voltage division structure. From this type of structure, 127-W laser power is obtained.     

Electro-optically Q-switched RF excited partial Z-folded CO2 waveguide laser

An electro-optically Q-switched partial Z-folded RF CO2 waveguide laser with an intracavity CdTe modu-lator has been designed and characterized.The partial Z-fold channel is 3 x 460 mm in length.In this paperwe study the laser output power as a function of gas pressure for partial Z-fold channel without Q-switchedcrystal inside the cavity.The maximum laser output power is about 21 W.For Q-switch operation,thepeak power is 730 W and the pulse width is 150 ns.     

Atmospheric pressure argon plasma-assisted enhancement of laser ablation of aluminum

In this paper, we present a hybrid laser-plasma ablation method for material processing applications. For this purpose, a coaxial configuration consisting of a low-temperature atmospheric pressure argon plasma beam and a Nd:YAG-laser at a wavelength of 355 nm was used. Both pure laser ablation and hybrid laser-plasma ablation experiments were performed on aluminum at different laser energies and numbers of laser pulses. In the case of hybrid ablation, both the depth and volume ablation rates were increased significantly in comparison to pure laser ablation. This effect is described by a linear interrelationship of both the ablation rate and the particularly applied laser energy and is thus due to energetic synergies. Such behavior can be explained by the de-excitation of argon plasma species and an accompanying energy deposition at the generated debris and the sample surface. The energetic effect was found to abate with increasing ablation depth. However, considerable improvements in terms of ablation rate are achieved in the near-surface depth range of approx. 500 microns.     

Direct fabrication of microgratings in fused quartz by laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation with a KrF excimer laser

We report precision microfabrication of fused quartz by laser ablation with a conventional UV laser for what is believed to be the first time. A high-quality micrograting structure is fabricated in fused quartz by a novel technique of laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation with a single KrF excimer laser (248 nm). The plasma generated from a metal target by laser irradiation effectively assists in ablation of the fused-quartz substrate by the same laser beam, although the laser beam is transparent to the substrate. A grating with a period of 1.06 mum is achieved by use of a phase mask. We can control the grating depth to 300 nm by changing the pulse number. This technique permits high-quality microfabrication of electronic and optoelectronic devices based on fused quartz and related silicate materials by use of a conventional UV laser.     

High-speed machining of glass materials by laser-induced plasma-assisted ablation using a 532-nm laser

+ :YAG laser (532 nm). The plasma generated from a silver (Ag) target by the laser irradiation effectively assists in ablation of the fused quartz substrate by the same laser beam, although the laser beam is transparent to the substrate. A grating with a cross-sectional shape like a square-wave (period ≈ 20 μm) is achieved using the mask projection technique. The ablation rate reaches several tens nm/pulse. In addition, LIPAA is applied to high-speed hole drilling (700 μm in diameter) of fused-quartz (0.5 mm thick) and Pyrex glass (0.5 mm thick). Received: 25 May 1998/Accepted: 19 June 1998     

Production of microscale particles from fish bone by gas flow assisted laser ablation

Recycled wastes from fish and seafood can constitute a source of precursor material for different applications in the biomedical field such as bone fillers or precursor material for bioceramic coatings to improve the osteointegration of metallic implants.In this work, fish bones have been used directly as target in a laser ablation system. A pulsed Nd:YAG laser was used to ablate the fish bone material and a transverse air flow was used to extract the ablated material out of the interaction zone. The particles collected at a filter were in the micro and nanoscale range. The morphology as well as the composition of the obtained particles were characterized by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The results reveal that the composition of the analyzed particles is similar to that of the inorganic part of the fish bone.     

Parameter study of RF excited diffusively cooled all-metal slab waveguide CO2 laser

In this paper, we have investigated some parameters of a radio frequency (RF) excited diffusively cooled all-metal slab waveguide CO2 laser based on the modified Rigrod theory by introducing a waveguide coupling efficiency which designates the coupling between the waveguide and the resonator mirrors. The parameters of the laser small signal gain go, saturation intensity Is, and waveguide coupling efficiency η are studied theoretically and experimentally. In the experiments, three sets of output coupling flat mirrors with the different transitivities were used, and a maximum laser power output of 150 W was obtained from a gas discharge region of 2-mm height, 20-mm width, and 386-mm length coupled with a CASE-I optical waveguide resonator.     

Excitation Temperature Measurement of Ar + N2 RF Plasma by Spectroscopic Method

The mixed gas (Ar + N₂) plasma has been generated by a 6 KW, 10.3 MHz radio frequency oscillator. The flame got extinguished if N₂ exceeded more than 20% of Ar. The Boltzmann plot using spectral intensities of Ar I and NI lines in the wavelength range 4000–4510 Å have been used to determine the excitation temperature. The results show that excitation equilibrium between two species exist since the temperatures are found to be nearly same for both species.     

An efficient,RF excited,waveguide CO2 laser

A CW waveguide CO₂ laser excited by a transverse radiofrequency discharge is described. An efficiency of 8.5% (laser power/RF power from supply) has been achieved and an output power of up to 4.6 W.     

High pulse repetition frequency RF excited waveguide CO2 laser with mechanical Q-switching

In this paper, a mechanical Q-switching is used in radio frequency (RF) excited waveguide CO₂ laser to obtain high pulse repetition frequency (PRF) laser. The Q-switching system includes two confocal ZnSe lenses and a high speed mechanical chopper, which is inserted into the cavity. The peak power is up to 730 W and the pulse width 200 ns at the highest PRF 20 kHz. The laser also has the advantages of compact, small-volume, and low-cost.     

Subpicosecond excimer laser ablation of thick gold films of ultra-fine particles generated by a gas deposition technique

The results of UV laser ablation of gold nanoparticle films on glass substrates using femtosecond pulses are presented. Films of ultra-fine gold particles were prepared by an inert gas evaporation and deposition technique, resulting in a well-defined log-normal particle size distribution of (7ǃ) nm. The pulse length of the laser was 500 fs at a wavelength of 248 nm. Ablation thresholds, ablation rates at different fluxes, and the morphology of the ablated structures are presented. For the nanoparticle films studied an ablation rate five times higher than that of gold films prepared by the conventional evaporation technique was found. The ablation thresholds and rates are supposed to depend on the particle size and also on the evaporation pressure. These results are explained by taking into account the energy transport properties of nanocrystalline and conventionally evaporated gold films.     

Influence of the electric field frequency on the performance of a RF excited CO2 waveguide laser

An analysis is presented of the effect of the RF frequency on the active media of CO₂ waveguide lasers. It is found that the characteristics are improved with increasing RF frequency because the space charge sheath width decreases with increasing excitation frequency. We also found that the sheath width decreases with the discharge current; this fact was never discussed before. The higher the exciting frequency the higher is the maximum input power of the discharge in the stable low current mode. It is attractive to extend the input power while keeping the discharge in this mode. Finally, a stabilizing excitation technique is described for the inherent unstable region of the discharge.     

Gain and saturation measurements in a discharge excited F2 laser using an oscillator amplifier configuration

The small-signal gain coefficient and the saturation intensity of a F₂ pulsed discharge molecular laser at 157 nm have been measured using two discharge devices in an oscillator-amplifier configuration. The small signal gain coefficient was measured to be 5.2±0.4% cm^–1 at 3 atm total pressure and 1.5 cm electrode spacing and 4.1±0.4% cm^–1 at 2 atm total pressure and 2 cm electrode spacing while the values of the saturation intensity were 5 MW/cm² and 4.6 MW/cm², respectively.     

Ar环境下脉冲激光烧蚀粒子阻尼系数的空间分布

在10 Pa的Ar环境气体中,采用脉冲激光烧蚀技术,分别在半径为2.0,2.5,3.0,3.5和4.0 cm的半圆环不同角度处的衬底上制备了一系列含有纳米晶粒的Si晶薄膜。使用扫描电子显微镜、X射线衍射仪和拉曼光谱仪对其表面形貌和微观结构进行分析表征。结果表明,纳米Si晶粒的平均尺寸和烧蚀粒子的阻尼系数均相对于羽辉轴向呈对称分布,并随着与羽辉轴向夹角的增大而减小;同时,随着衬底半径的增加,晶粒平均尺寸和阻尼系数均逐渐减小。     

Ar环境下脉冲激光烧蚀粒子阻尼系数的空间分布

在10 Pa的Ar环境气体中,采用脉冲激光烧蚀技术,分别在半径为2.0,2.5,3.0,3.5和4.0 cm的半圆环不同角度处的衬底上制备了一系列含有纳米晶粒的Si晶薄膜。使用扫描电子显微镜、X射线衍射仪和拉曼光谱仪对其表面形貌和微观结构进行分析表征。结果表明,纳米Si晶粒的平均尺寸和烧蚀粒子的阻尼系数均相对于羽辉轴向呈对称分布,并随着与羽辉轴向夹角的增大而减小;同时,随着衬底半径的增加,晶粒平均尺寸和阻尼系数均逐渐减小。     

Numerical analysis of TOF measurements in pulsed laser ablation

The results of numerical simulation of pulsed laser ablation both in vacuum and into a background gas are presented. The influences of different processes, such as time evolution of the surface temperature, interspecies interactions (elastic collisions, recombination-dissociation reaction), interaction with an ambient gas, and excitations-relaxation processes on time-of-flight (TOF) distributions are examined. Experimentally obtained time-of-flight distributions are further analyzed, based on the results of numerical simulation. It is found that with the aid of numerical results one can explain not only the shape of the TOF distribution, but also the distance dependency of its maximum position (mean delay time). In addition, the mechanisms leading to the appearance of bimodal time-of-flight distribution are revealed. The study presents particular interest for the analysis of experimental results obtained during pulsed laser ablation.