Advances in PLD of Thin Films

PLD with sub-ns pulse length laser Comparison fs-laser to ns-laser higher kinetic energy of ablated ZnO species, higher mosaicity, smaller grain size, but also smaller residual stress of ZnO on c-sapphire. May be advantageous for special materials [124,125] 

Continuous composition spread (CCS-PLD) Continuous, controlled, vertical composition gradient by PLD, for example, applied for 11 ai , Sr., Ti03 films [126-128] 

Combinatorial PLD Dramatic increase of the rate of discovery and improvement of new compounds, synthesis of up to thousands of different compositions on one wafer in a single growth run [129-131] 

PLD in UHV (laser-MBE) MBE-like background pressure and in situ RHEED to ensure clean and controlled deposition of high-quality nucleation layers and films. For particular systems as SrTiC 3 and BaTiC 3, atomically smooth surface and interface were obtained [128,132] 

RF- and ion-beam assisted PLD PLD chamber equipped with RF or microwave plasma source or ion beam source to enhance the composition of particular film components such as N or O to grow in-plane aligned films on polycrystalline substrates, and to grow nanostructures [128] 

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