Imposed layer-by-layer growth by pulsed laser interval deposition

Abstract

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) has become a significant technique to study the thin film growth of novel materials. Here, one has benefited from the main advantages of PLD, the relative easy stoichiometric transfer of material from target to substrate and the almost free choice of (relatively high) background pressures. However, the applicability of PLD is still hampered, because real time in situ growth monitoring was almost not available. For example, Reflection High-Energy Electron Diffraction (RHEED) was limited to low background pressures only until recently. High pressure RHEED, which makes it possible to in situ monitor during deposition of oxides at the higher pressures, opened new possibilities [1]. Besides observed intensity oscillations due to layer by layer growth, enabling accurate growth rate control, it became clear that intensity relaxation observed due to the typical pulsed way of deposition leads to a wealth of information about growth parameters [2]. Here, PLD in combination with high pressure RHEED is used to study the influence of the different parameters on the growth mode, resulting in a new approach to impose layer by layer growth by interval deposition.