Fraunhofer Institute for Material and Beam Technology IWS
Pulse laser deposition process
Schematic diagram of the target-substrate arrangement for large-area homogenous coating
Layer fabrication
- laser beam focus on the target
- emission of the so-called plasma plume
- condensation of the plasma atoms on the substrate’s surface
Process conditions
- vacuum: p ~ 1...5 x 10-8 mbar
- laser type: Nd:YAG, Excimer
- laser wavelength: 1064 nm, 532 nm, 355 nm, 266 nm, 193 nm
- laser power densities: 107 - 108 W/cm2
Advantages of the PLD procedure
- high mean particle energies -> smooth glass-like amorphous films
- targeted material deposition
- no process gas necessary -> pure layers
- small target size
- basically every material can be used
Applications
- internal coatings of components
- gradient multilayers for parallel or focused x-ray optics (Ni/C, Cr/C, Mo/C, ...)
- monochromatic for X-ray fluorescence analysis
- total internal reflection optics for EUV and X-ray radiation (e.g. ruthenium, platinum, carbon)
- carbon/carbon multilayer systems
- fabrication of layer thickness standards
- substrate smoothening layers