Characterization of zirconium thin films deposited by pulsed laser deposition

Abstract

Zirconium (Zr) thin films deposited on Si (100) by pulsed laser deposition (PLD) at different pulse repetition rates are investigated. The deposited Zr films exhibit a polycrystalline structure, and the X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the films show the α Zr phase. Due to the morphology variation of the target and the laser-plasma interaction, the deposition rate significantly decreases from 0.0431 Å/pulse at 2 Hz to 0.0189 Å/pulse at 20 Hz. The presence of droplets on the surface of the deposited film, which is one of the main disadvantages of the PLD, is observed at various pulse repetition rates. Statistical results show that the dimension and the density of the droplets increase with an increasing pulse repetition rate. We find that the source of droplets is the liquid layer formed under the target surface. The dense nanoparticles covered on the film surface are observed through atomic force microscopy (AFM). The root mean square (RMS) roughness caused by valleys and islands on the film surface initially increases and then decreases with the increasing pulse repetition rate. The results of our investigation will be useful to optimize the synthesis conditions of the Zr films.

Mechanical, electronic, and thermodynamic properties of zirconium carbide from first-principles calculations

“…[2][3][4] Due to the presence of metallic bonding, the thermal and electrical conductivities of ZrC are similar to those of the zirconium metal. [5,6] Beside, ZrC has a much lower density compared to other carbides like WC, TiC, and HfC. Thus, ZrC has an attractive potential in rocket/SCRAM jet engines and hypersonic spacecraft, where lower density and higher temperature load bearing capability are the most important requirements.…”

Growth of nanoporous high-entropy oxide thin films by pulsed laser deposition

“…These droplets contain many atoms which do not separate to individual adatoms, and thereby form near spherical morphologies on the film surface or round patterns within the film. These droplets are known to influence film properties and are thus a key challenge of the PLD technique [33,34]. The cross-section view of a droplet was observed by a STEM dark-field (STEM-DF) image (Fig.…”

Growth of Niobium Thin Films on Si Substrates by Pulsed Nd:YAG Laser Deposition

“…A C C E P T E D ACCEPTED MANUSCRIPT 2 deflection effect prevent PLD technique from emerging as reliable technology for the deposition of high quality films [3][4][5][6] . We found out, in our recent research activity on the deposition of metallic thin films, that droplet density on the film surface can be reduced by detailed parametric studies [7] .…”