Studies of novel materials produced by laser ablative deposition

这是一项研究晶体薄膜和纳米结构的生长和性质的建议。生长技术是脉冲激光沉积，这是一种使用强烈的紫外光脉冲蒸发随后用于形成薄膜的材料羽流的过程。在许多方面，薄膜的电子、光学甚至结构特性由最初的几个原子层决定。因此，最初几层的界面工程可以对所得到的薄膜产生重大影响，甚至可以产生一种新的界面材料。通过分析技术的进步，我们现在可以提取关于界面原子的重要化学信息。结合薄膜沉积的改进，这为基础科学和重要应用(如光伏)打开了新的机遇。 拟议的研究旨在利用这些机会开发专门用于光伏和其他应用的感兴趣的材料。这既包括均匀的薄膜，也包括在适当条件下自组装的复杂纳米结构。具体的研究材料有LaAlO_3、SrTiO_3、CdTe、FeS_2、金和银。

This is a research proposal to study the growth and properties of crystalline films and nanostructures. The growth technique is pulsed laser deposition, a process where an intense UV pulse is used to vapourize a plume of material that is subsequently used to form the film. In many respects the electronic, optical and even structural properties of a film are determined by the first few atomic layers. As a result, interfacial engineering of those first few layers can have a dramatic impact on the resulting film or can even produce a novel interfacial material. Through advances in analytical technicques, we can now extract important chemical information about the atoms at the interfaces. Combined with improvements in film deposition, this opens new opportunities for both fundamental science and important applications such as photovoltaics. The research proposed seeks to take advantage of those opportunities to develop materials specifically of interest for photovoltatic and other applications. These include both uniform films and intricate nanostructures that self-assembly under appropriate conditions. Specific materials to be studied are LaAlO3, SrTiO3, CdTe, FeS2, gold and silver.