Laser induced defects and materials interactions in the V-Si system

Pulsed laser annealing has been evaluated as a technique for fabricating superconducting V3Si from multilayer V-Si samples, and the nature of laser-induced defects in V3Si single crystals has been examined. Correlated analyses by ion scattering, ion channeling, T/sub c/ measurements and TEM were used to examine the composition and structure of samples subjected to single and multiple laser pulses. It was observed that although the superconducting A15 phase could be formed by pulsed laser mixing, the associated rapid quenching effects introduced defects which were not completely removed by thermal annealing to 925 K for 1 hour. Ion channeling and TEM studies of V3Si single crystals showed that pulsed laser irradiation caused microcracks to develop in the surface, probably from mechanical stresses induced by thermal gradients