Laser reactive ablation deposition of nitride films

Titanium and silicon nitride films were deposited on silicon wafers by XeCl (308 nm) excimer laser ablation of titanium and silicon, respectively, in low pressure (10 −3 −5 mbar) nitrogen-containing atmospheres. Series of 10 000 pulses at a repetition rate of 10 Hz were directed to the target surface. The fluence was set at about 5 J/cm 2 . Pulse duration was about 30 ns. The deposited films were characterized by different techniques (X-ray diffraction, scanning and transmission electron microscopy, etc.). Good quality films with a thickness exceeding 1 μm were obtained under specific experimental conditions.