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技术，用于生产薄膜材料，特别是氧化物。在PLD技术中，非常短且高能量的激光脉冲聚焦在位于超高真空室中的靶材料上。聚焦的激光束足够强烈，可以产生一股蒸发的物质。为了生长外延膜，衬底位于加热器上，离靶很近，允许蒸发的材料重新结合并在衬底上形成膜层。在PLD中，为了生长材料的外延薄膜，需要调整很少的参数。利用这种技术，人们还可以生产包含多种材料的多层膜。在布洛克，这样的系统自1991年以来一直在运行。我们使用的是1983年制造的Lumonics准分子激光器，每脉冲能量为200 mJ。这种准分子激光器由于卤素气体泄漏和前镜破裂（不再有商业销售）而不再安全使用。PLD系统为Brock的学生提供了很好的服务，使其进入加拿大材料研究技术薄膜的先进领域的就业市场。事实上，自1991年以来，两位客座教授，两位博士后研究员，两位博士生（共同监督），十位硕士生和七位四年级学生（论文项目）使用脉冲激光沉积系统进行项目。这种培训帮助我的许多学生在行业中找到工作，或继续成功地在博士课程的教育。我现在的研究生和本科生需要PLD系统不仅为他们的论文项目，但也帮助他们作出贡献的加拿大劳动力在电子行业的未来。

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.