Pulsed laser deposition of ceramic oxide thin films

Full text: A pulsed laser ablation line was designed and installed by ISEM. The system consists of a high vacuum chamber with a base pressure of 10-7 mtorr, and a UV (248nm) laser (Lambda Physik) with a maximum energy output of 1.2J/pulse and repetition rate variable between 1 and 10 Hz. The target manipulator can accommodate up to 6 targets of 1'' diameter for multi-layer deposition, and the substrate temperature can be controlled between room temperature and 1,000 deg C. Up until now this system was used to deposit a number of ceramic oxides such as YBa2Cu3O7.δLa0.8Ca0.2MnO3 and CeO2 on single crystal substrates, as well as CeO2 on bi-axially textured Ni and a metallic oxide (LiNi0.Co0.2O2) on polycrystalline stainless steel. The multilayers produced so far were Y-123/CeO2 on <100> MgO and La0.8Ca0.2MnO3/CeO2 on <100> YSZ. By optimising the deposition parameters, all ceramic oxides deposited on single crystal substrates are high quality epitaxial films. The characterisation results of some of the films produced are presented and discussed