Deposition of oxide nanostructures by nanosecond laser ablation of silicon in an oxygen-containing background gas
A.A. Rodionov1,2, S.V. Starinskiy1,3, Yu.G. Shukhov1, A.V. Bulgakov1,4
1Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics SB RAS, Novosibirsk, Russia
2Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
3Novosibirsk State University
4Institute of Physics CAS, Prague, Czech
Keywords: pulsed laser deposition, thin films, non-stoichiometric silicon oxide, laser ablation in background gas
Abstract
The nanosecond laser ablation technique was used to synthesize thin silicon oxide films of various stoichiometry in vacuum and in a background gas. The local oxidation degree of specimens was evaluated using three different characterization methods. It was found that, on increasing the distance to the laser-plume axis, there occurred a monotonic increase in the oxygen content of the films due to their oxidation inhomogeneity. A profound increase in ablated mass, related with an increased reverse flow of substance to the target, was found to occur when the pressure of the ambient mixture was reduced from 60 to 20 Pa. A comparison was made of the oxidation efficiencies of the films heated at the stage of their synthesis and at the stage of annealing of already formed films. It is shown that the composition of the films could be controlled by varying the inert-gas pressure at the constant pressure of the chemically active component in ambient mixture.
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