Replacement of an Excimer laser for pulse laser deposition system

脉冲激光沉积(PLD)是一种独特而简单的制备材料特别是氧化物薄膜的技术。在PLD技术中，一个非常短的高能量激光脉冲聚焦在位于超高真空室中的靶材料上。聚焦的激光束的强度足以产生一缕蒸发的物质。为了生长外延薄膜，衬底位于离靶材较近距离的加热器上，允许蒸发的材料重新结合并在衬底上形成一层膜。在PLD中，只需要调整很少的参数就可以生长出材料的外延薄膜。利用这种技术，还可以生产包含多种材料的多层薄膜。在布罗克，这样的系统自1991年以来一直在运行。我们使用的是Lumonics准分子激光器，每个脉冲的能量为200毫焦耳，制造于1983年。由于卤素气体泄漏和破碎的前镜(已不再商业化)，这种准分子激光器不再可以安全使用。PLD系统很好地服务于布罗克的学生，因为他进入了加拿大就业市场这一先进的材料薄膜研究技术领域。事实上，自1991年以来，两名客座教授、两名博士后研究员、两名博士生(共同指导)、十名硕士学生和七名四年级学生(论文项目)使用脉冲激光沉积系统进行他们的项目。这一培训帮助我的许多学生在行业中找到了工作，或者成功地继续攻读博士学位。我现在的研究生和本科生不仅需要PLD系统来完成他们的论文项目，而且还需要帮助他们为加拿大电子行业劳动力的未来做出贡献。

Pulsed Laser Deposition (PLD) is a unique and easy technique for producing thin films of materials specifically Oxides. In the PLD technique a very short and high energy laser pulse is focused on a target material located in an ultra high vacuum chamber. The focused laser beam is intense enough to produce a plume of vaporized material. In order to grow an epitaxial film a substrate located on a heater at a short distance away from the target allowing the vaporized material to recombine and form a layer of film on substrate. In PLD one needs to adjust few parameters in order to grow an epitaxial thin films of materials. With this technique one also can produce multi-layers film containing several materials. At Brock such a system is in operation since 1991. We have used a Lumonics excimer laser, 200 mJ of energy per pulse,that was built in 1983. This excimer laser is no longer safe to be used due to the leakage of halogen gas and the  broken front mirror (no longer available commercially).The PLD system has served the student at Brock well for entering into the Canadian job market in this advanced field of thin films of material research technology. Indeed since 1991, two visiting Professors, two post doctoral fellows, two PhD students (co-supervised), ten MSc students, and seven fourth year students (thesis projects) used the pulse laser deposition system for their projects. This training helped many of my students to find jobs in industries or to continue successfully their education in a PhD program. My present graduate and undergraduate students  need the PLD system not only for their thesis project but also helping them  to contribute to the future of Canadian work force in the electronic industries.