Pulsed Laser Deposition
PLD Laboratory
Within Center of Excellence in Nanoscience and Nanotechnology we installed pulsed laser deposition (PLD) system at our department, which is a powerful technique for thin-film growth of inorganic materials mainly. The delivered system is dedicated for layer-by-layer growth and thus enables preparation of high quality thin films and structuring on nanoscopic level. The system is equipped with following major components: heater stage for laser and resistive heating of substrates, target scanning stage, loadlock for sample and target transfer, high-pressure reflection high-energy electron diffraction system, upgrade with UHV pumps (titanium sublimation pump, ion pump), oxygen plasma source, sputter source (1 x 1.3” target), connection with a glovbox. For ablation of target material KrF excimer laser is used with energy up to 700 mJ per pulse and max. repetition rate of 50 Hz. For laser-energy setting and diagnostics attenuator and corresponding camera are used, respectively.The system is in-situ connected with a storage chamber and chamber for temperature desorption studies. In addition, using UHV suitcase as-prepared samples can be in-situ transferred from PLD chamber to different systems for structural, chemical and electrical characterization (XPS, JT-STM, 4-PROBE), which are all located at Jožef Stefan Institute.