Particulate reduction in ternary-compound film growth via pulsed laser deposition from segmented binary-targets

Abstract

We present the hetero-epitaxial growth of high-quality crystalline Y _3 Ga _5 O _12 onto a 〈100〉-oriented YAG substrate via pulsed laser deposition, using mixed ternary-compound and segmented binary-compound targets. We observe that a Y _3 Ga _5 O _12 film fabricated using a segmented target (Y _2 O _3 /Ga _2 O _3 ) contained ∼100 times fewer scattering points than a film grown using a mixed Y _3 Ga _5 O _12 target. We show that following ablation, the surface of the mixed compound (ternary) target had laser-induced cone structures, whereas the surface of single compound (binary) targets did not. It is concluded that the different ablation dynamics of the oxide constituents in the respective targets plays a significant role in the origin of the scattering points in the resultant films.

Keywords

• pulsed laser deposition
• crystal structure
• surface structure
• thin films
• ceramic target
• 81.15.Fg