COMPARISON OF THE STRUCTURE OF LASER-DEPOSITED AND SPUTTERED METALLICALLOYS

The structure of metallic elements and alloy thin films grown by pulse d KrF laser deposition was examined by X-ray diffraction and Mossbauer spectroscopy, and compared with results on triode sputtered films. Wh ile, in general, the obtained phases and structures are similar, laser ablated films often exhibit smaller grain sizes, enlarged lattice par ameters in the growth direction, larger extensions of the single-phase regions and sometimes a better alignment of the grains. It can be con cluded, that often laser deposited metallic material is in a stare fur ther away from equilibrium than after preparation by classical thin fi lm techniques. The differences can be explained by the 10(5)-10(6) tim es higher momentary deposition rate of the pulsed laser ablation proce ss.