Structure and morphology of thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition technique

This paper presented the structure (SEM, TEM), morphology and chemical composition (EDS) of the beta-Al3Mg2 thin film and Ni/Al-Mg/Ni/Al-Mg/Ni/Al-Mg multilayer, which were obtained by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) under different laser wavelength (X) and substrate temperatures (T-s). These films were deposited using Nd:YAG laser. The Al-Mg film was obtained by application of the laser wavelength (lambda=355 nm) and substrate temperature (T-s) 200 degrees C. Whereas the Al-Mg-Ni multilayer was produced at lower laser wavelength (lambda=266 nm) and at room substrate temperature. For preparation of both films the same laser fluence (q=4.7 J/cm(2)) was used. The TEM observations revealed that Al-Mg film and Al-Mg-Ni multilayer possessed nanocrystalline structure. However, in some areas of Al-Mg thin film occurred Al columnar crystals and amorphous structure. The phase investigations showed the occurrence of Al (fcc) and Al2MgO4 phases. While in the Al-Mg-Ni multilayer revealed the Al0.65Mg0.35 (fcc) and Ni (fcc) phases. The chemical analyses exhibited that the stoichiometry of the Al3Mg2 target wasn't transferred to the Al-Mg film and Al-Mg layers, which were a part of Al-Mg-Ni multilayer.