High-energy laser-assisted hybrid magnetron sputtering for enhanced thin film deposition

制造业仍然是工业的关键驱动力，在针对非常特定应用的材料和设备的先进制造方面做出了巨大努力。这些技术中的许多技术依赖于或可以使用如通过例如脉冲激光沉积或磁控溅射提供的纳米沉积/涂覆来显著增强。这两种方法都具有与例如成分控制或均匀覆盖区域相关的特定优点和缺点。虽然有人提议实施混合工艺，但尚未证明有一种专门的工艺可以提供稳定和适应性强的操作范围，从而获得两种技术的好处。我们以前已经证明了的影响，激光脉冲的能量密度超过磁控溅射靶上的烧蚀阈值，而它连续工作。已经表明，与fs或ps激光脉冲相比，烧蚀阈值非常显著地降低，并且环境压力对沉积膜的质量起着重要作用。该提案的目的是使用混合方法在室温附近沉积三个专用薄膜系统，以产生非常特定的结构和大的涂层面积。这些薄膜具有强烈的技术兴趣，同时将沉积过程的不同方面推向极端。我们计划合成（铪，锆）O2隧道结，神经形态计算，需要良好的控制厚度在几个纳米的范围内。然后，我们建议羟基磷灰石，生物相容性材料，其中大的沉积速率和大面积覆盖是理想的，需要一个专用的介观结构，并最终双钙钛矿Bi 2FeCrO 6，与可调带隙的散装光伏效应，依赖于在一个非常窄的工艺窗口中的磁有序控制。通过与我们的工业合作伙伴合作，并使用独特的高功率激光基础设施ALLS，我们希望根据令人鼓舞的初步结果证明，我们的新型混合方法不仅提供稳定的中间生长条件，而且具有很好的潜力，可以根据各种材料，沉积速率和面积微调工艺参数。

The manufacturing sector remains a key driver in industry, with a strong effort in the advanced manufacturing of materials and devices for very specific applications. Many of those rely on or can significantly be enhanced using nanometric deposition/coating as provided by e.g. pulse laser deposition or magnetron sputtering. Both methods have specific benefits and demerits related to e.g. the control of composition or the area for homogeneous coverage. While there have been proposals to implement hybrid processes, a dedicated process to provide a stable and adaptable range of operation accessing the benefits of both techniques, is yet to be demonstrated. We have previously demonstrated the effect of laser pulses with fluencies exceeding the ablation threshold on the magnetron sputtering target, while it operates continuously. It has been shown that with fs, or ps laser pulses, the ablation threshold decreases very significantly compared to ns lasers and that the ambient pressure plays a significant role for the quality of deposited films. The aim of this proposal is the deposition of three dedicated thin films systems near room temperature using the hybrid approach for generating very specific structures and large coating areas. These thin films have strong technological interest while pushing different aspects of the deposition process to extremes. We plan to synthesize (Hf, Zr)O2 tunnel junctions, for neuromorphic computing that requires excellent control of the thickness in the range of a few nanometers. We then suggest hydroxyapatite, a biocompatible material for which large deposition rates and large area coverage are desirable with a need for a dedicated mesoscopic structure and ultimately the double perovskite Bi2FeCrO6, with a tunable bandgap for the bulk photovoltaic effect that relies on the control of magnetic ordering in a very narrow process window. In collaboration with our industrial partners and using the unique high-power laser infrastructure ALLS, we expect to demonstrate, based on encouraging preliminary results, that the our novel hybrid approach does not only provide stable intermediate growth conditions but an excellent potential to fine-tune the process parameters to a large variety of materials, deposition rates and areas.