No abstract

Thin polycrystalline ZnSe:Mn films made by vacuum deposition on amorphous glass substrates are annealed by the scanned beam of a high‐power argon cw laser operated at the 457.9 nm wavelength. Melting and degradation of the films is observed if the laser intensity exceeded distinct threshold values which were characteristic for each of the both processes. The thresholds are determined by a new method which takes advantage of the Gaussian intensity profile of the laser beam and may be generally applied for systems of an absorbing thin film on a nonabsorbing substrate with low thermal conductivity. Cathodoluminescence measurements indicate that the luminescence properties of the ZnSe:Mn films can be improved by cw laser annealing with intensities ranging between the melting and the degradation threshold.