A fully automated pulsed laser deposition system for HTS multilayer devices

Abstract

For the fabrication and development of high-temperature superconducting (HTS) thin film devices, which often require multiple layers, it is essential to have control over all parameters during growth. Until recently, the overwhelming majority of film growth was controlled manually. We have found this can often lead to error and irreproducibility. To overcome these problems we have designed and constructed an automated multitarget excimer pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system. We identify key elements of the system that can be utilised to address many of the problems currently encountered in HTS film growth. Optimisation using Robust Design techniques has also been used in the identification of principal parameters in growth of films and multilayers.

Nanomechanical and nanotribological characterization of multilayer self‐lubricating Ti/MoS2/Si/MoS2 nanocoating on aluminium‐silicon substrate

“…Laser conditions determine the evaporation process of material from a target, which can be thermal or nonthermal. PLD method has various merits over the conventional techniques of coating deposition, as it allows simplistic process automation and its environmentally friendly approach . A technical problem with PLD is due to the deposition of macroscopic particulates in the coating that mainly occurs due to the splashing effect .…”

Combinatorial Material Science and Strain Engineering Enabled by Pulsed Laser Deposition Using Radially Segmented Targets

“…Therefore, the number of available alloy compositions is limited by the amount of single composition targets, which can be mounted into the vacuum chamber of the setup. The only alternatives until now would be rather cost-intensive multibeam setups or movable-mirror geometries, , which need to be exactly calibrated. To the best of the authors knowledge, there is only one study in literature, where a single wedge-segmented target was used to control the composition of KTa 1– x Nb x O 3 thin films .…”

In memory of Mikhail Arnol'dovich Blokhin

“…These designs also have features that are usually unnecessary for PLD, such as bakeability and ultra-high-vacuum (UHV) compatibility; most PLD systems are high-vacuum rather than UHV ones. Other non-commercial designs available from within the PLD community either required some form of manual latching mechanism, to engage and disengage the target rotation when different targets were to be selected or were unreliable; these were unsuitable for our system because it is fully automated [11]. Additionally, such mechanisms often used in-vacuum motors which were unsuitable due to their high cost and their cooling requirement, especially when the substrate heater is to be used during deposition.…”