Improved uniformity of multielement thin films prepared by off-axis pulsed laser deposition using a new heater design

A new compact substrate heater for the pulsed laser deposition (PLD) technique has been developed. The heater is built up of a radiation part, consisting of two quartz halogen lamps, and a rotating absorber, made of a SiC disk, to which the substrate is attached. The advantage of this system in comparison to conventional heaters is its suitability for substrate temperatures up to 800 degrees C in any ambient (vacuum as well as corrosive gases). The heater is applied for the deposition of thin, multielement films with improved thickness uniformity using off-axis PLD. This technique makes use of a rotating substrate which is off-centered from the depositing plasma plume. The thickness profile is modeled using predetermined stationary thickness distributions. For a variety of multielement materials good experimental uniformities in terms of thickness (in close agreement with the calculations) and of chemical composition are obtained. A relation is found between the value of experimental parameters and the achievable uniformity area within a large pressure range. (C) 1996 American Institute of Physics.