PULSED-DISCHARGE-AIDED LASER-ABLATION SYNTHESIS OF NANOSCALE ALUMINUMNITRIDE POWDERS

Pulsed nitrogen (N-2) discharges were shown to efficiently generate at omic nitrogen that promoted the synthesis of high-purity aluminum nitr ide powders formed by pulsed-laser ablation of aluminum targets. The i nteraction between the nitrogen discharge plasma and the ablated alumi num plume depended on the synchronisation of the two pulsed events for maximum overlap of the transient reactants. By monitoring the optical emissions of the reactive N+ species acid analysing the synthesised p owder with X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, it was found that when la ser ablation occurred at about 3 mu s after the pulsed discharge, the N+ emission from the overlapping plasma was the most intense and the p urity of the aluminum nitride synthesized was the highest.