Short-pulse laser deposition of diamond-like carbon thin films

The high intensities present in and the non-thermal nature of ultrashort-pulse laser ablation provide a nearly ideal source for thin-film deposition. The high kinetic energies and high ion content in the ablation plume suggest that it would be useful for the creation of diamond thin films. We used a 120 fs, 3 W, 1 kHz laser to ablate a graphite target and characterized the resulting films. We were able to grow amorphous films of up to 18 7m thick and free from graphite particulates with no annealing necessary and at rates up to 25 7m/hr. The films had 40-50% sp³ bonds as measured by using EELS and had properties typical of PLD-generated diamond-like carbon films.