ULTRATHIN-FILM DEPOSITION BY PULSED-LASER ABLATION USING CROSSED BEAMS

A high vacuum pulsed laser deposition system is described where an int ersection of two ablation plumes from twinned simultaneously irradiate d targets is used. This system allows thin film and multilayer deposit ion of a wide variety of materials (including low melting point metals like tin) practically without droplet contamination. The intersection region acts as a filter for droplets and high energy plasma particles . The use of twinned targets of different materials facilitates prepar ation of artificially mixed supersaturated thin film solid state solut ions used as a media for sub-micrometer and nanometer-scale surface pr ocessing. Special design of the target holder that can carry simultane ously up to 24 targets and computer control of the deposition process make it possible to change easily targets without venting the depositi on chamber and to deposit arbitrary multilayer combinations of various materials.