Laser-induced evaporation, reactivity and deposition of ZrO2, CeO2, V2O5 and mixed Ce-V oxides

It has been found that pulsed laser ablation has good potentiality for the deposition of ZrO2, CeO2, V2O5 and mixed Ce-V oxides which are very importa nt materials for their application in optics and electrochromic devices. La ser induced compositional changes of thin films in the ablation and deposit ion processes of these materials have been explored, The effect of the oxyg en gas pressure on the thin film composition has been examined. The congrue ncy of the process has been treated on the basis of a thermal mechanism of evaporation-decomposition of the compounds. An attempt to model the process es by means of a thermodynamic approach is reported (C) 2000 Elsevier Scien ce B.V. All rights reserved.