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An improved continuous compositional-spread technique based on pulsed-laser deposition and applicable to large substrate areas

H. M. Christen·C. M. Rouleau·I. Ohkubo·H. Y. Zhai·H. N. Lee·S. Sathyamurthy·D. H. Lowndes
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Abstract

A new method for continuous compositional-spread (CCS) thin-film fabrication based on pulsed-laser deposition (PLD) is introduced. This approach is based on a translation of the substrate heater and the synchronized firing of the excimer laser, with the deposition occurring through a slit-shaped aperture. Alloying is achieved during film growth (possible at elevated temperature) by the repeated sequential deposition of sub-monolayer amounts. Our approach overcomes serious shortcomings in previous in-situ implementations of CCS based on sputtering or PLD, in particular the variations of thickness across the compositional spread and the differing deposition energetics as function of position. While moving-shutter techniques are appropriate for PLD-approaches yielding complete spreads on small substrates (i.e. small as compared to distances over which the deposition parameters in PLD vary, typically about 1 cm), our method can be used to fabricate samples that are large enough for individual compositions to be analyzed by conventional techniques, including temperature-dependent measurements of resistivity and dielectric and magnetic and properties (i.e. SQUID magnetometry). Initial results are shown for spreads of (Sr,Ca)RuO$_3$.

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H. M. Christen, C. M. Rouleau, I. Ohkubo, H. Y. Zhai, H. N. Lee, S. Sathyamurthy, D. H. Lowndes. 2003-06-17. An improved continuous compositional-spread technique based on pulsed-laser deposition and applicable to large substrate areas. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.1602962

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