Abstract

Pulsed laser evaporation (PLE) has recently been shown to have interesting possibilities in the fabrication of novel thin films with desirable properties.¹ When compared with other evaporative techniques, PLE is distinguished by its tendency toward congruent evaporation of compounds, alloys, and mixtures. The departure from thermodynamic equilibrium of the deposited film stoichiometry is wholly attributable to very rapid nonequilbrium heating (~10¹⁰ K/s) induced by the IR lasers typically used. There has been little work examining possible photochemical effects in the PLE process, but wavelength certainly affects evaporation efficiency and angular distribution.² We are not aware of any previous work on polymer PLE for film formation; however, there exists a body of literature demonstrating the importance of laser wavelength, and possible photochemical effects, in laser-induced removal (ablation) of polymer films.³

© 1988 Optical Society of America