Investigation of the mechanism of the UV-induced palladium deposition process from thin solid palladium acetate films

Abstract

The nature of the UV-induced decomposition process of thin solid palladium acetate films was investigated on different substrate materials (Al 2O 3, quartz, polyimide) with a pulsed KrF ∗ excimer laser at λ = 248 nm and an incoherent Xe ∗ 2 excimer source peaking at λ = 172 nm. Pulsed excimer laser deposition appears to be a process depending very much on the thermal properties of the substrate material and results always in discontinuous palladium layers. The decomposition caused by the incoherent excimer radiation is found to be independent of the thermal properties of the substrate material. It leads to smooth continuous palladium films. The transmission changes of the film during irradiation with incoherent VUV radiation were measured in the wavelength range 150 < λ < 400 nm after different exposure times. The change of transmission with exposure time is related to model calculations describing photolytic decomposition processes in thin solid films.