Abstract
Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) is a deposition technique, developed from Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) especially well suited for producing organic/polymeric thin films, which can take advantage from using Nd:YAG laser. Depending on the relative values of light absorption coefficients of the solvent and of the molecules to be deposited, laser energy is directly absorbed by the solvent or is transferred to it, providing a softer desorption mechanism with respect to PLD. In PLD ultraviolet laser radiation is commonly used, but in MAPLE, since easily damaged molecules are usually involved, the use of Nd:YAG laser offers the advantage to allow selecting laser wavelength from ultraviolet (266 nm or 355 nm, corresponding to 4.66 eV or 3.49 eV photon energies, resp.) to visible (532 nm, 2.33 eV) to infrared (1064 nm, 1.17 eV). In this paper, the MAPLE technique is described in details, together with a survey of current and possible future applications for both organic and biomaterial deposition taking into account the advantages of using an Nd:YAG laser. Beside other results, we have experimental confirmation that MAPLE applications are not limited to transparent molecules highly soluble in light absorbing solvent, thus allowing deposition of poorly soluble light absorbing molecules suspended in a light transparent liquid.
Highlights
Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) [1] is a thin film deposition technique derived from Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) with the aim to make possible the deposition of soft materials
The two conditions originally assumed to be crucial in order to obtain a MAPLE deposition can be relaxed
In any case, compared to PLD, the MAPLE technique results in a more soft mechanism of delicate material transfer from target to substrate. This means that MAPLE deposition technique is suitable for several situations in which other techniques and especially PLD deposition cannot be used, but, on the other side, it requires a fine adjustment of the deposition layout and parameters
Summary
Matrix-Assisted Pulsed Laser Evaporation (MAPLE) [1] is a thin film deposition technique derived from Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) with the aim to make possible the deposition of soft (e.g., polymeric, organic, bio) materials. Journal of Nanomaterials molecules for an increasing number of applications [6, 15,16,17,18] justify the large interest in both better understanding the guest extraction mechanism [19] and determining the effect of several deposition parameters [20,21,22,23] (guest/matrix volume fraction, boiling temperature and vapour pressure of matrix, guest damage temperature, laser pulse energy and repetition rate, laser radiation penetration depth, substrate temperature during deposition, etc.) on the MAPLEdeposited film characteristics Another important parameter concerning the MAPLE deposition is the wavelength (or photon energy) of the laser light used for target ablation/evaporation. It must be remarked that our experiments confirm that MAPLE applications must not be limited to light transparent molecules highly soluble in light absorbing solvent but can be successfully performed for suspensions of light absorbing molecules (or even molecular aggregates or nanoparticles) in a light transparent liquid
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